


Captain Underpants and the Return of the Dastardly Villain

by Jackie_SugarSkull, novarose122001



Category: Captain Underpants Series - Dav Pilkey, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants (Cartoon)
Genre: Abuse, Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Character Development, Child Abuse, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Friendship, Giant/Tiny, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Blood, Mystery, Nightmares, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Romance, Separation Anxiety, Singing, TINY - Freeform, giant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-08-09 22:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20125177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackie_SugarSkull/pseuds/Jackie_SugarSkull, https://archiveofourown.org/users/novarose122001/pseuds/novarose122001
Summary: It have been a long time since the defeat of Professor Poopypants.Now, things have been normal and school is back on schedule.But, then a new teacher had come in for teaching, in a whole new way!Not only that, the principal is acting strange again, this time, talking to himself after getting knocked out from falling from a cliff during camp.And, the new teacher is acting strange too, not only nice, but strange whenever there is something going on.But, a new evil was rising from the ground, bent on revenge of the whole school!Can George and Harold, with a few new and old friends figure out what is going on, and defeat this old foe of their own?





	1. Welcome To Jerome Horwitz Elementary School!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was a normal day, until a strange woman came over to hire a job...

Stephanie needs to find a job.

Since her “family members” have jobs, and her “brothers” go to school, she is the only one that does not have a job nor can not go to school.

But, she does not know which one to pick in the first place.

So, she is stuck in the house for a while, until she picks the right and suitable one.

During her time at home for the moment, she went outdoors to get the mail.

After gathering the mail from the mailbox, she was heading back to the house, wondering what could be inside the stack in her arms.

She is wearing her blue jeans pants, with her socks on as her flip-flops were on her feet.

Stephanie was also wearing her light blue long-sleeved shirt, even if the day is shining.

Halfway walking up to her house, she noticed there was a newspaper on the ground.

Holding the mail against her bosom, she crouched down and picked up the rolled-up newspaper, wondering to herself curiously.

Shrugging to herself, she placed the newspaper with the rest of the mail, thinking it would be okay to look at the news.

Then, she walked back into her home, closing the door behind her back.

She removed her flip-flops off her feet next to the shoe cabinet.

After taking her flip-flops off, she went into the living room and set the mail down on the table. 

Then, she sat down on a chair, looking through the mail to find out what could be inside. 

In the mail were a few things that annoy her a little.

There were bills for the funding of her house, along with water too.

She thought she had already paid the bills off!

Unless the landlord of her own is greedy when it comes to money.

Sighing, she put them down on the table next to the stack, running her hand through her long brown hair.

At the rate she is going, she has to move into an apartment to live in.

Her attention looked over at the newspaper, wondering if there are some job occupations for her to see if one of them is suitable.

Picking the newspaper from the pile, she removed the rubber band from it and opened it, looking at the first page of the paper.

Oddly, there was news about a bald man wearing a red cape and only in his underwear saving someone’s life from falling off a building.

It made her feel odd about this strange person in the text, but shrugged her shoulders and continued looking through it.

She kept finding out some advertisements on plumbing, construction, and even singing too.

Stephanie softly winced at the idea of singing, so, she wisely decided to avoid it.

Then, after she had flipped to the next page of the newspaper, she noticed one of the advertisements read, “Need Jobs? Come On Over To Jerome Horwitz Elementary School To Get A Promotion Of Becoming A Teacher!” 

She hesitated for a bit after reading the advertisement about being a teacher, and it made Stephanie feel a bit comfortable.

Although there might be many kids looking at her, she assured herself that this job might not be that bad.

She got up from the chair that she was sitting on, before stretching for a bit.

Then, she walked over to the door, before taking her blue cameo sweater off from the coat rack and put it on.

After putting her sweater on, she bent down and picked her shoes up from the shoe cabinet.

Sitting down on the ground, she placed her shoes on, before tying the shoelaces.

After tying her shoelaces, she stood up from the ground, about to walk out the doorway, when she paused for a moment.

Stephanie glanced down at her right hand, thinking to herself for a second. 

If she did get the job, the people at the school might stare at her for being weird and possibly could make her life miserable.

Or maybe mocked for being weird to the students as well.

So, using her camouflaging powers, she transforms her arm back into her own original skin color.

It does not feel like metal from underneath the camouflage, it just feels exactly like her left arm.

All flesh and bones if someone feels it.

Not only her arm changed, but her left eye and the left-hand side of her hair.

Her legs were camouflaged too, but just in case if she decided to roll her pant legs up or wear shorts.

It is still made of metal, except feel identical to her left, like her hair to the rest.

Deciding to pack a lunch before she leaves, she entered the kitchen and took out her hand-stitched bag from her sweater pocket.

It had multiple patch works on it with different colors of fabric, as there was a small bundle of hexagons on the bottom.

The bag also has a string on it, with a tightener to tighten the lace.

She set it down on the counter of the kitchen and opened it widely.

Once she had opened her bag, she thought to herself for a moment to put into her back, before snapping her fingers, getting the idea.

Opening the fridge, she brought out some food that she had leftover for the day, along with some ramen cups for when if she is still hungry from the cupboards.

She also took out a large black bento box, decorated with blue roses.

After she had taken that bento box out, she placed it into the bag, which oddly did not make a visible form of it.

Then, for a side snack, she took out a whole loaf of banana walnut bread that was placed in a large bag for safekeeping and without rotting.

Luckily, the bread is sliced into reasonable pieces for her to pull apart easily without using her hands.

After she had got that out of the freezer, she placed it inside her bag, without the ice blocks to keep it frozen.

Once she had gathered up some items for lunch, she decided to go since it is the right time and tied her bag.

Then, she grabbed her backpack from the coat hanger like her sweater was, looking inside for a moment.

She placed her lunch bag inside along with her belongs that she had collected for the school.

Stephanie also grabbed a folder that contained her résumé for the principal to look at, placing it into her backpack.

After gathering what she needed for the school, she went outside, locking the door behind her back.

But, before heading over to the school, she first went to get some coffee for breakfast.

She grabbed two caramel macchiatos with cardboard covering, and the extra one is for the principal for an act of kindness.

Even though it is almost lunchtime, she just did it for the heck of it.

When she arrived at school from the address in the newspaper, she suddenly had a feeling of gloominess.

It made her feel self-conscious about the strangeness around the school, but shrugged herself from it, and decided to go in.

Once she gets into the school, she noticed the kids about around 10 to 12 was walking, and some looked sad and miserable. 

Others were just marking lines on the side of their lockers, others were playing their harmonicas, and some were only silent.

Once she had arrived at the principal’s door, she walked up to the secretary and smiled softly.

“Hello, ma’am.” She kindly greeted as she slowly glanced up at her. “Do you mind if I meet the principal?”

“The principal is busy now.” the secretary spoke, as her voice sounds monotone. “But I’ll ask him.”

Stephanie gently smiled and patiently waited for her to call him, although feeling uneasy at first.

The secretary pressed a button on the phone and said, “Sir?”

“_ What? _” a gruff voice asked, as Stephanie stiffened a bit from the sound.

“A young lady is waiting to see you.” The secretary responded.

“_ Is it Edith? _” the man asked, his tone lightening a bit.

“One moment.” She moved her hand away from the button and turned her attention to Stephanie. “Your name?”

“Stephanie,” Stephanie quickly answered her question. “Stephanie Nova Rose Allen.”

The secretary nodded her head and turned back to the microphone, pressing the button again.

Without her noticing, she quietly sighed to herself, trying to relax from being nervous.

“Her name is Stephanie Nova Rose Allen, sir.” the secretary spoke.

A pause came from the man for a moment, before the same gruff voice said, “_ Let her come in. I want to see who is this Stephanie Allen, Ms. Anthrope. _”

The secretary, named Ms. Anthrope, removed her hand from the button again as Stephanie could feel her heart beating through her chest.

She glanced back over to her, as she nervously smiled with her lips.

“He wants to go in,” she spoke as Stephanie sighed in relief.

“Thank you.” She thanked before going into the office, leaving the secretary in slight confusion.

When she opened the door, she instantly felt a wave of anger and darkness went through her, causing her to shiver slightly from that feeling.

But, she manages to look through it and close the door behind her back, fully entering the room.

It was dark and cold inside, as there were pictures behind his back, saying like the ant and the boot, along with other cruel photographs.

Screwed on the front of the desk was a sign that says “Hope dies here” as there was an arrow pointing down.

“Well?” the same gruff voice asked, snapping slightly in the tone. “Are you coming?”

Stephanie stiffened a bit from the sound of the voice, but sighed and bravely entered, fully seeing the person who spoke through the speaker as the blinds showed a little light inside.

He has fair skin color and black beady eyes.

He is wearing a short-sleeved buttoned-up white shirt with a brown tie and dark green pants.

The man is also wearing a pair of brown shoes.

On top of his head is a wig that partially covers his bald head.

It looked uglier than the normal ones that she saw earlier.

He noticed Stephanie, with a nervous, but, a brave smile on her face, and he snapped at her, causing her smile to disappear. 

“What are you doing here?” he growled, making Stephanie sweat a bit.

“Uh, I, um,” Stephanie bravely spoke to him as he kept the stern look on his face. “I, uh, got you some coffee for you just in case if you didn’t get any breakfast earlier in the day.”

She brought out his coffee from the cup container in her hands and placed it down on the desk, chuckling nervously slightly.

“Why are you here in the first place?” he asked, repeating the same question that he had asked before.

Then, he took the coffee from the desk that Stephanie had placed it.

“Oh, well, s-since I don’t have a job back at home, I was thinking of getting a job here so that I can keep my home, instead of sitting around doing nothing,” she calmly explained, although a little nervous.

He rose one of his eyebrows, and she sat down on one of the chairs in front of the desk.

She also placed her backpack down on the side of her chair so that she could get the paperwork.

During the time she was sitting down on the chair, she had her coffee in her hand without spilling and placed the carrier in the recycling.

“Alright, Stephanie,” he spoke, as Stephanie perked a little from being small in front of him. “Is there a reason why you picked this job in the first place?”

“Yeah, I’m just having problems with my landlord that needed more money than what I had given him,” she answered, pushing a lock of hair from her face.

While she was speaking to him, he took a sip of the coffee that Stephanie gave him, still looking sternly at her.

“He kept giving me a bunch of bills during the time too, and this job is comfortable for me,” Stephanie explained, tapping her fingers nervously on the coffee cup in her hands. “Because I’m not sure if the other ones are simple enough for me.”

He paused for a moment, as Stephanie smiled nervously.

“What’s your name?” She asked, still having a smile on her face, but it was nervous. “Sorry for not properly asking it in the first place.”

“My name is Krupp.” He answered coldly. “But, I prefer being called Mr. Krupp.”

She softly sighed and moved some locks of her hair, pushing it over her ears, luckily her left ear is under camouflage too.

He stood up from his chair that he was sitting on and held out his hand as Stephanie looked confused.

“May I have your paperwork?” Mr. Krupp asked, grumbling slightly.

Recognizing what he wanted, she nervously chuckled at her slow process and unzipped her backpack, reaching inside and rummaging through it for a while.

Mr. Krupp impatiently taps his fingers of his left hand against his desk as Stephanie rummaged through it, looking for her paperwork.

He still has the grumpy expression on his face as he waits, his right hand out for the folder that Stephanie is searching for.

When Stephanie found her paperwork deep inside her backpack, she pulled it out, and the folder was in blue color, as there were drawings all over it.

Double-checking if it was the right one, she opened it and flipped through the pages, before glancing up at him, chuckled nervously, once more.

“Sorry that took longer,” she apologized to him, placing the folder down in front of him. “The paperwork was behind some other paper that I brought with me just in case the printer is out. And why I have so many folders is because I do multiple things.”

Mr. Krupp had an unamused look on his face and turned the folder around to him, as Stephanie zipped her backpack up.

He looked at the papers that she had filled out, looking at the picture of her that she took for the résumé.

Luckily, it did not show her real body, but only her camouflaged.

Mr. Krupp glanced up at Stephanie, with a suspicious look on his face.

Stephanie chuckled nervously and rubbed her left hand, unsure of what he is going to think of her.

After a while of looking through the paperwork that Stephanie filled out before, he closed the folder, perking Stephanie up slightly from being nervous.

But instead of giving her a smile, he placed his hands together, looking ominously at her.

Stephanie had a bad feeling about this as she could feel her stomach nervously twisting.

“Alright, Ms. Allen, I’ll hire you for the job, but don’t do anything fun for the kids or you’re fired,” he explained, still having a grumpy look on his face.

Stephanie frowned slightly in anger and disbelief. 

“Are you kidding me?” she softly spoke.

“I’m not kidding you,” Mr. Krupp grumbled. “No fun, no parties, nothing.”

Stephanie sighed as she rolled her eyes and slowly got up from the chair.

“Alright,” She sighed, pushing back a strand of hair. “I’ll remember that.”

Mr. Krupp nodded his head once, before explaining, “Your classroom is Mr. Fyde’s, which is down the hall, and on the left.”

Stephanie nodded her head in response to his explanation, before gently placing her left hand on her chest, and carefully bowed to him slightly, without spilling her coffee in her hand.

That bow that Stephanie did confuse him as he raised an eyebrow.

“Thank you,” she thanked, before leaving the office, but paused for a moment. “Oh, one more thing, if you have questions about me, you are welcome to visit my classroom in your free time!”

After she had told him, she winked at him and left, leaving Mr. Krupp in confusion.

He sighed after she had exited his office and placed a hand on his temple, as his other was on his desk.

“She’s too sweet,” he grumbled.

As for Stephanie, she entered the science class, and sat down on the chair, before putting her backpack down on the side.

Then, she finished her coffee in her hand, placing the empty coffee cup into the trash.

The school bell rang, and she excitedly waited for the kids to come in.

When the kids entered, talking to each other and looking a little happy, but when they noticed Stephanie, she smiled and gently waved to them.

They looked confused about the new teacher as they sat down at their desks, as she stood up from her chair.

“Hello, class.” Stephanie greeted them, feeling a bit excited. “I am your new science teacher, Ms. Allen.”

She wrote her name on the chalkboard, although not applying too much strength to hurt anyone’s or her own ears.

After she had written her name on the chalkboard, she placed the chalk down, thinking to herself about what else to do.

Then, she started to mentally panic a little when she noticed she does not know what to do.

And she forgot to ask the principal about the classroom too!

“Alright, uh…” she turned back to the rest of the classroom with a nervous smile on her face.

She gently put her hands together, trying to think of something to do for the hour without boring the kids. 

The kids gently cocked their heads to the side when they noticed that their teacher looked a little anxious.

“Since I am new here, does anyone know what to do?” she asked, sighing gently in defeat.

A hand rose up from the classroom, and Stephanie pointed at the student.

The student was close to the front of the classroom, except near the door over one seat.

“What’s your name?” She asked as the hand went down.

“Melvin,” the student answered. “Melvin Sneedly.”

He has fair skin color, with ginger hair that spikes up, and has freckles.

The boy wears a pair of green-rimmed round glasses that make his eyes black does.

He also wears a short-sleeved shirt underneath his vest, which is in the colors of moss-green and faded yellow.

Around his neck is a yellow bow tie, along with a watch on his left wrist.

He also wears a pair of black shorts, that have pockets on the sides of his hips.

The boy also has dark brown socks with shoes in the same color, except lighter.

“We are doing science projects,” Melvin explained as Stephanie gently cocked her head to the side. “We have before tomorrow to finish them.”

A slightly confused look appeared on her face after Melvin spoke about science projects due tomorrow.

Before Stephanie could ask why the projects are due tomorrow, the speakers turned on.

Stephanie turned her attention to the speaker, wondering what Mr. Krupp’s idea is for tomorrow or maybe the next week.

“_ Attention students, attention! I, principal Krupp, have decided we are going to go camping for the month, _ ” Mr. Krupp spoke, as everyone seemed confused about the announcement. “ _ And it starts tomorrow, at 8 a.m.! _”

Melvin, on the other hand, looked irritated from the announcement, placing a hand on the side of his temple.

Stephanie looked confused too about the strange announcement, but shrugged her shoulders, turning to the kids.

“Okay, change of plans.” She smirked, before using a chalk brush to wipe her name from it. “Let’s do a little game before we can talk about science.”

Confused blinks came from everyone when she decided to change the subject, as she sighed.

“Allow me to explain what I mean by that.” she turned to the chalkboard and started to draw out a long three-sided list.

She was not using too much strength on the chalkboard, because she does not like the sound of it and tried her best not to use her nails on it either on accident or on purpose.

The kids, on the other hand, looked confused about the teacher’s actions, as they glanced at each other, before glancing back at her.

Melvin also looked confused too, but still had a slightly irritated look on his face about the camping announcement from earlier.

After she had finished drawing on the board, she moved to the side for the kids to see what she had made.

The first section for personal items to go camping.

The second section in the middle is for items that are maybe needed for going camping.

And the last section is for impersonal items that you do not need to go camping with.

“Okay, does anyone know what we need to go camping?” she pointed at the list before many hands were raised up from the kids.

She scanned around the classroom for a moment before pointing at a random student.

“You?” she asked.

“Maybe you need to a picnic basket for your food during the camping,” the student responded.

“O-Or maybe to go picnicking with your friends!” another excitedly blurted.

“Yeah, I like that idea!” Stephanie beamed happily, before turning to the chalkboard and wrote the item under items to go camping.

Melvin perked a little when he saw the strange personality of the new teacher in the science class.

Usually, like other teachers in Jerome Horwitz Elementary school is rude, old, and likes to see students in pain and misery.

But this new teacher that came into the school is young, polite and likes to give some games to the kids.

During their spare time, she continued asking questions about items to go camping and writing them down on the list.

The children come up with either smart ideas or silly ideas, which made Stephanie laugh gently about that.

Sometimes it is something they want to bring if there is nothing else to do.

But there are most items in the maybe need section from two boys in the background.

Melvin just stayed quiet as he watched the teacher going back and forth, asking questions and getting responses from the students as they excitedly give out ideas.

Instead of suddenly snapping at them and calling out of their stupid ideas, of what he expected, she continued doing what she is doing.

Then, a teacher helper came into the room, carrying a large stack of permission slips for Stephanie to hand out to the kids.

She thanked the helper as he exited the room, mostly in confusion.

Once the teacher helper is gone, she politely asked the children to come up to get their papers.

One by one, each kid slowly came up to Stephanie, and she handed them the paperwork, stapled in a commonly thick stack.

Then, she reached the end of the line, encountering two that seemed to be excited about the camping.

The first kid is an African-American with short dark curly hair.

He wears a white collared T-shirt with a red tie and wears black shorts with pockets on the sides.

To top things off, he is also wearing a pair of white and back sneakers.

The second boy has large, fluffy blond hair and fair skin.

He wears a striped green and lime-green short-sleeved shirt, along with light brown pants with pockets on the hips.

Not only that, but he is also wearing a pair of light gray sneakers.

“Hello, you two.” Stephanie gently greeted the two before bending her knees slightly to get down to their height. “My name is Ms. Allen. What are your names?”

“George Beard.” the first kid responded. “And this is my friend, Harold Hutchins.”

Harold shyly waved hello to her, and Stephanie smiled from their names.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you two.” She gently greeted, softly patting their heads.

Shortly, the bell rang, and she glanced up in curiosity, as George and Harold sat back down in their seats, once they had placed their permission slips into their backpacks.

“Uh, what’s that bell for?” Stephanie curiously asked, sounding clueless as she stood back up to her height.

George and Harold looked up from what they were about to do and glanced at each other.

“It’s a recess bell,” Harold answered while getting out some supplies. “It always does that when it hits that time.”

“Yeah, don’t you know?” George asked before Stephanie shook her head no.

“Nope, been to school before and it’s been a long time since I’ve remembered the school schedule too from there.” Stephanie sighed, rubbing the back of her neck.

George and Harold paused for a moment through their supplies and glanced at each other again.

“Maybe if you come over here, we could give you the school schedule of the school.” George beckoned, before patting the spare desk between both of them.

Stephanie walked over to the desk that George patted and sat down, although looking like a fully grown-up child compared to them, as her legs reach up to the bottom of her neck.

After she sat down, George turned towards her as Harold continued taking out some supplies.

“Okay, the first thing is that when the clock strikes 9:30, we go to our first period, which is before meeting you,” George spoke, as Stephanie listened to him. 

Harold in the background was also taking out some items too, like crayons, blank paper, and pencils.

“When the clock strikes 10:30, we go to our second period. 11:45 is our fourth period, and it is our science class. Before or after the fourth period, we go to lunch and recess.” George explained, also doing the same thing.

Harold, in the background, took out his lunch from his backpack, while George did the same thing.

Except while talking to Stephanie and getting out some writing items.

Stephanie nodded her head gently and wrapped her arms around her legs, continuing to listen to the explanation George is saying to her.

“Then, we get back at 12:10 and go to the fifth period.” George finished, before leaning to the side to check on Harold. “At 1:50, we get to the sixth period, which is you again, but, we don’t do anything at that period since we can’t do science twice.”

Stephanie paused for a moment, before George finished, “And we get out at 2:15. By the way, could you pass me a finished drawing?”

She glanced over at Harold as he held out a piece of paper in his hand, that had some creative drawings on it and nodded her head.

Being gentle, she took a piece of paper from Harold and gave it to George.

“So, what are you two doing?” She curiously asked, noticing the strange drawings of a man in his underwear.

“We’re writing comic books!” Harold excitedly answered.

The answer somehow curious Stephanie as she gently cocked her head to the side, as she handed the paper to George.

“Really?” She asked, glancing at George.

“Yeah, it’s called ‘Captain Underpants!’” Harold lifted up a half sketched cover of the comic book, pointing at a character that is wearing only a cape and underwear.

Strangely enough, that character looked almost like the one from the picture in the newspaper that she read earlier back at her home.

But, she shrugged it off her shoulders to herself mentally and felt more curious about their character.

A light smile appeared on her face and asked, “What’s the character about?”

“Well, he came from a different universe where there are people only wearing bras and underwear, but the planet was destroyed unexpectedly,” George explained, before taking a bite from his sandwich. “He came to earth as a baby and was raised by dolphins.”

Stephanie softly chuckled from the background of the character, as Harold glanced away shyly.

“And, during his adventures, he defeats villains, and saves the day!” George smiled as Harold nodded his head.

Stephanie felt more and more curious about their creativity and decided to ask another question about it.

“So, what’s this comic is going to be about?” she curiously asked.

“We haven’t figured that out,” Harold spoke, before opening a bag of chips.

Stephanie thought to herself before pardoning herself to the boys and getting up from the chair that she was sitting on.

After she had gotten up from the seat that she was sitting on, she walked back over to her desk.

She reached over to her backpack and placed it on top of the chair while unzipping her bag.

Reaching inside her backpack with both of her hands, she rummages through it for a while.

George and Harold watch her with curiosity, wondering what she could be getting.

After a while of rummaging through her backpack, she took out her hand-stitched lunch bag.

“Whoa, did you hand-stitch that?” Harold asked, pointing at the bag.

Stephanie glanced down at the bag in her hands before back up at him and said, “Yes, I did.”

“Could you make us one of those?” George asked, sounding excited.

Stephanie paused for a moment, thinking to herself.

“Well, it has been a while since I have created something from scratch, but sure, I can make you two one of your own.” Stephanie smiled, sitting down at the same desk, and opened her bag. “Now, for that comic, I was thinking of something. Like, maybe aliens?”

“Done that before,” Harold spoke, eating another chip. “Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space.”

“What about plants?” Stephanie asked, guessing the next one.

“That one too,” George responded. “Captain Underpants and the Attack of The Lawn.”

Stephanie paused for a moment and thought to herself before an idea popped into her head.

“I got another idea, what about a new sidekick?” Stephanie asked, pulling out the bento box from inside that she had packed back at her house.

George and Harold glanced at her with slightly confused looks on their faces before getting her idea.

“I never thought of that,” Harold spoke, before turning to George. “What about you?”

“No, I haven’t!” He answered.

“And I think this sidekick is…” Stephanie trailed off, trying to think of something at the top of her head.

In the meantime, she placed her bag down in her lap, as she had her bento box in her hands.

“I think a woman!” George pointed out.

“Yeah, and does karate!” Harold added, sounding excited. 

“That works.” Stephanie shrugged her shoulders, deciding to move along with their plans.

She placed the box down on the desk and opened it as there was sushi inside, along with gyoza.

George and Harold looked curious when they watched her take the lid off the bento box.

“Those look like the ones that Gooch’s parents give him for lunch!” Harold pointed.

Stephanie glanced over at the two, smiling mildly.

“Yes, they are.” Stephanie calmly spoke, before reaching back into her bag and took out her eating chopsticks.

“Are you half-Japanese?” George asked.

“No,” Stephanie shook her head. “I just eat like this because I have been to Japan before.”

George and Harold’s jaws dropped when she responded to them calmly.

“You’ve been to Japan before?” Harold asked, sounding surprised.

Stephanie nodded her head as she ate one of the sushi rolls.

“What is it like there?” George asked, sounding curious.

Swallowing, she responded to George’s question, “It’s beautiful and fresh. There is no trace of garbage anywhere. And, the food there is gorgeous too, along with delicious.”

She picked up another one of the sushi rolls, and ate it, smiling to herself.

“What are they made out of?” Harold asked, mentioning the food that Stephanie is eating.

“Well, it’s mostly made out of raw fish and wrapped in seaweed, but sometimes they cook it,” Stephanie responded, as George in the background made a slightly disgusted look on his face. “Mostly, there is packaged food, but I avoid those that are poisonous.”

“They are crazy!” Harold exclaimed.

“Welcome to Japan.” Stephanie shrugged, eating some rice.

During lunchtime, the boys and Stephanie continued talking about their ideas of the new comic, as they did not notice that Mr. Krupp was watching in the background.

He seemed confused about how friendly Ms. Allen was acting and how helpful she was too.

It did not make sense to him.

He glanced away from the door and thought to himself, trying to figure out how she is different from the others.

After the boys finished their lunch, Stephanie absentmindedly noticed that they did not have any dessert, as she was halfway through her bento box.

“Hey, do your parents pack dessert for you two?” Stephanie curiously asked, mentioning the lunch. “Or anything else for you to eat in case if you feel hungry?”

“Not usually,” George answered, closing his bag, gathering the trash on their desks.

Stephanie thought to herself for a moment, thoughtfully chewing on the remaining of the sushi roll in her mouth.

When they came back after placing their trash in the trash bin, Stephanie glanced at them side to side.

“Have you two tried sushi before?” she asked, swallowing what is in her mouth.

They both looked at her and shook their heads no.

Without another word, she placed her chopsticks down in front of her before pushing back a strand of hair.

Using her hands, she lifted her bento box up, revealing a secret compartment that was underneath the first half.

The inside was filled with medium-sized round buns that were pinched at the top.

Along the side of the secret compartment was another round ball, but covered in sesame seeds and smaller than the first ones.

The second half of the bento box seems to impress the two boys.

“What are those?” Harold asked, sounding curious.

“Which ones?” Stephanie asked, picking her chopsticks up.

“The ones covered in sesame seeds,” George spoke.

Stephanie looked down at what they mean, noticing they mentioned to the ones that are next to the buns.

“Oh, these?” She pointed as they nodded their heads. “They are sesame balls. Would you both like to try some?”

They nodded their heads, and Stephanie divided them, keeping some in her box.

After giving some to them, they both hesitated for a moment, uncertain if she was right about it being raw.

They glanced over at Stephanie as she placed one of them in her mouth, chewing it for a moment while smiling gently.

So, George was the first one to try it.

He carefully took a bite, and when he did, George looked impressed and placed the rest in his mouth.

It was sweet in the middle of the balls, as there was some crunch to it too.

“How is it?” Harold asked, sounding curious, mostly worried.

“It’s good!” George responded, placing another of them in his mouth.

Harold paused for a moment, before bravely trying it himself, chewing thoughtfully, but the taste came to him.

He looked down at the half-bitten ball in his hand, noticing there was some blackish-red like substance in the middle of it.

Harold just shrugged his shoulders, guessing it could be chocolate.

“Oh, wow!” Harold spoke, placing another one inside. “What’s the inside of it?”

“Red bean paste,” Stephanie answered, causing them to look back at her, cheeks full of the sesame balls.

They glanced down at the last remaining one in their hands, then back at Stephanie.

“How can something that sounds so wrong,” Harold spoke, as George took a bite from his, seeing what is in the center of it. “Taste so good?”

“Precisely my point when I first try these things when I was 8 years old.” Stephanie chuckled, finishing her half of the sesame balls. “Would you two like to try some baos?”

They both hesitated for a moment, feeling unsure if that one is raw like what she explained earlier.

But that last one they ate was good!

So, they nodded their heads, and Stephanie divided them up between the two of them, leaving some for herself too.

After she gave them the baos, they first took a careful bite, chewing it thoughtfully, before liking it, taking big bites.

“Easy,” Stephanie softly chuckled. “You’re going to make yourself choke at this pace.”

“We can’t help it,” George spoke through a mouthful of bao, taking another bite. “It’s good!”

“I know!” Harold spoke as they finished the bao in their hands. “It’s good!”

Stephanie chuckled and pushed back a strand of hair.

“I’m happy you two liked them.” She softly chuckled.

“Maybe I should convince my parents to go to a Japanese themed restaurant,” George spoke, as Harold nodded his head.

After she finished eating what is in her bento box, she placed her chopsticks inside, using a napkin to wipe the soy sauce off her mouth.

Then, she placed the top half of the bento box back on the bottom, sighing to herself gently.

After placing the bento box together, she put it into her bag on her lap.

Stephanie paused for a moment, still feeling a bit hungry since she has not eaten breakfast.

Plus, she had already finished her coffee too.

So, she reached back into her bag again and took out the loaf of banana nut bread that she grabbed on her way out of the door.

Harold and George’s faces looked surprised when she brought that out from her small bag.

“Did you stuff that inside your bag?” Harold asked as Stephanie glanced over at him.

Smiling, she said, playing with their imagination, “Just imagine it as a magical bag.”

George and Harold smiled from her light gesture, and she opened the bag, immediately a whiff of banana went into their noses.

“Oh, wow,” George smiled. “That smells so good.”

Stephanie smiled and reached inside with her right hand, taking a slice from inside and gave it to George, as he took it from her.

She repeated the same process and gave it to Harold.

Then, she reaches back inside the bag, and took out a slice for herself before closing it.

She put it back into her hand-stitched bag and tightened it, before taking a bite out of the slice she had in her hand.

It was just like how she remembered back when she was young.

“Oh, my gosh,” Harold smiled before taking another bite from the piece of bread he has. “This is so good!”

“I know!” George beamed. “I think this is good with milk.”

“And butter!” Harold added as they glanced at each other from across Stephanie, as she smiled gently.

“Along with toasting slightly.” Stephanie gently added before taking another bite.

They both looked at Stephanie, and George asked, “Did your mother used to make these when you were our age?”

Stephanie nodded her head to his question and brushed some crumbs from the side of her cheek.

“Yeah, sometimes in the morning, momma could toast these slightly in the toaster and put butter on it,” Stephanie explained, drooling slightly in hunger.

“Then, she must’ve been a good cook!” Harold asked as Stephanie’s expression softened a bit when he mentioned her mother.

“Yeah… she was…” Stephanie softly spoke, the expression on her face slowly saddened.

George and Harold noticed the look on her face and decided not to tell more things that are on the subject of mothers.

They went back to eating, slowly enjoying the flavors of the bread in their hands.

Stephanie continued enjoying the banana nut bread in her hand, although a little saddened about her mother, when Mr. Krupp appeared, startling the three.

“Oh, yizus!” Stephanie sighed with a mouthful of bread. “Don’t do that to us, please, Mr. Krupp.”

Mr. Krupp hesitated for a moment when Stephanie spoke, before mumbling something under his breath.

Confused, Stephanie asked, “Hmm? What’s that?” while leaning in a bit to hear what he said earlier.

“Could I have some of your bread.” Mr. Krupp asked, his voice a little louder, his cheeks blushing a little.

Now, understanding what he said, she chuckled and brought the bread out of her bag.

“Why didn’t you ask that earlier?” Stephanie asked as he glanced away from her, his cheeks blushing slightly still.

After taking out a slice of bread from her bag, she handed it to Mr. Krupp, before he mumbled again under his breath.

This time, Stephanie stood up and pointed at her ear, as if she wanted him to whisper into her ear.

Rolling his eyes, Mr. Krupp leaned down over to her ear, as Stephanie patiently waited for his ask.

“Could I have another slice?” he whispered, his cheeks still slightly blushing in embarrassment.

“Sure!” she beamed, before taking out another slice. “Is it for someone you like?”

She raised an eyebrow when she mentioned someone he likes.

His cheeks went redder than before, as a light chuckle came from her.

Then, he gently snatched the second piece of bread from her, as Stephanie blinked in slight surprise.

He turned away from her and walked out of the classroom, grumbling under his breath.

After he had stormed out of the classroom, Stephanie finally closed her bag of bread and placed it back into where it came from.

“Geez, what’s wrong with him?” Stephanie gently asked, brushing back a bang of hair.

“He’s always like that.” George sighed, gathering his trash after finishing his bread.

“Yeah, ever since we both came here from kindergarten,” Harold added, doing the same thing to his desk.

Stephanie paused for a moment in confusion before asking, “Is he always rude to everyone?”

George and Harold came up to her, and George said, explaining to her, “He’s actually a bully towards kids and most adults.”

Stephanie looked surprised by what she heard he said.

“Th-That’s why he said nothing fun related after I got the job.” Stephanie sighed. “That’s just cruel, too!”

“It could get worse too.” Harold sighed, looking away from her and putting his hands into his pockets.

Stephanie paused for a moment, thinking to herself about the condition that the kids are in and how badly the teacher is treating them.

An idea popped into her head, as a mischievous smile appeared on her face.

She knelt to their height and gently placed her hands on their shoulders.

“I got an idea.” They turned to her, with confused looks on her face. “Let’s make a little idea tomorrow when we get to camp, okay? Right now, I want to do a little rebellion against him.”

“What’s that?” Harold asked, sounding curious and interested.

She chuckled and said, “You’ll see in six period.”

Soon the bell rang, and George and Harold gathered their things, quickly thanked Stephanie for the bread, and went off to their next period.

Stephanie decided to take this time to clean up a bit for the next class.

During the fifth period, she did well in that class too, pulling a few jokes and making the kids laugh, maybe cracking smiles.

Soon, the sixth period came, and the same kids entered the classroom, expecting to get nothing from the teacher.

Instead, Ms. Allen said, standing up from her chair, “Class, I have something to say!”

The class looked confused and a little nervous about what she is going to say, when she said this instead of what they expected, “You may do something in your spare time, but quietly.”

The kids looked surprised from what Ms. Allen told them, as others looked at each other.

She giggled softly and added, as she had her first finger against her lips, “I don’t want us to get in trouble with Mr. Krupp. I have a little rebelling idea against his rules. For now, you may have free time.”

The kids’ expressions brightened and started to bring out some art supplies, as Melvin in the front of the third row of chairs looked confused.

Stephanie noticed the look on his face and came over to his side, asking, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know what to do since it’s free time,” Melvin admitted, as Stephanie thought to herself.

“Wait right here.” She walked off and picked her backpack up from the ground before unzipping it.

She placed both of her hands inside and rummaged through it for a moment, looking for something.

The kids looked curious about what she is doing as they almost stopped at what they were doing.

Melvin, on the other hand, felt curious himself about what she is doing.

Mentally feeling worried about getting a girl’s drawing for him to color.

Then, she pulled out a small stack of papers, as she flipped through it, at the bottom was cradled in her left arm.

Stephanie walked back over to Melvin and asked, “Do you like solving math problems?”

Melvin nodded his head, and Stephanie placed a single piece of paper in front of him before saying, “When you have completed this, come to me, and I’ll give you the next one.”

He excitedly nodded his head before asking, “Is this for extra credit?”

Stephanie gently hummed for a moment before answering his question, “Yeah, it is.”

Melvin happily chuckled to himself and started to work on it, as Stephanie walked back to her desk.

She placed the rest of the papers down beside her and sat down, before taking out a halfway crocheted work, that looked like a long snake, with the two black beads for eyes.

The design was a rainbow, starting with red from the tip of the nose.

She continued to crochet while having an ear out for anything odd from the children.

A few times she would look up from her work when she stops on a stitch, wondering about the kids.

Sometimes she watched as some kids were quietly talking to each other, gossiping about something or about something that happened earlier in the day.

Others were making art, either cutting or coloring or making some origami.

The two boys that she had talked to earlier in the day was making comics in the back of the classroom, drawing some sketches about the new sidekick or maybe a new villain.

But, she also looked at Melvin, using a calculator as he crunched the numbers.

A sly grin came from Stephanie as she went back to crocheting, pushing back a strand a couple of times.

The math problems that she had given Melvin were hard, above his grade, and mostly long too.

Pushing her glasses up, she glanced down at her phone after pulling it out from her blue jeans pocket, and it reads “1:59.”

After she checked for the time, she went back to crocheting, before hearing someone clearing their throat.

Glancing up from her work, she noticed it was Melvin, who cleared their throat, holding his work out to Stephanie.

“You’re done?” Stephanie asked, sounding impressed.

“Yes, I am.” He answered after placing it down beside her on the desk. “Is there more, though? The problems on the paper were hard but fun.”

Smirking, she took a paper from the top of the small stack and gave it to him.

“Why don’t you try this one?” Stephanie asked, giving the piece of paper to him. “It’s at the middle school level.”

Melvin smiled and took the piece of paper from her, before walking back to his seat, as Stephanie went back to crocheting.

Soon, the bell suddenly rang, and Stephanie glanced up from her work, looking a little startled that it rang suddenly.

‘Maybe since I was so focused on my work, I forgot about the time.’ she sighed to herself, as she got up from her chair.

“Ms. Allen?” Stephanie glanced down at Melvin when he spoke to her.

“Yes?” she answered, pushing back a lock of hair.

“Is there any homework for me?” He asked, pushing his glasses up into place. “Since you’re the teacher around here, I was wondering if-”

“You may have some,” Stephanie spoke, interrupting him and mentioning to the stack of papers.

He looked surprised about her response to his question as she picked up her backpack, which has her hand-stitched bag inside.

But, he smiled gently and said, “Thank you, I need to train my brain for a while during the camp.”

Chuckling softly, she watched as Melvin took the stack of papers from the desk and placed it into his backpack.

“You’re welcome, Melvin.” Stephanie granted. “If you want more paperwork, just come to my cabin and ask me, okay?”

He glanced over his shoulder and nodded his head, looking a little confused.

Is she always like this?

Then, the bus’s horn honked, causing Stephanie to look at where the noise is coming from.

A panicked look appeared on his face as he glanced over at the window when Stephanie glanced back at him.

She glanced out where he was looking at and noticed that other buses were leaving instead of his.

“Oh, no!” he exclaimed, quickly zipping his backpack up. “I’m going to be late for my bus again!”

Without another word, she quickly scooped Melvin up from the ground and ran out of her classroom.

She zoomed down the hallway, carrying him in his arms as he was yelping in startlement, from both the speed and the sudden lift.

When she reached the bus just in time, she stopped before colliding into the bus, and gently knocked on the glass.

The school bus driver noticed one of the teachers was knocking on the door and opened it, expecting her to tell him to wait for one of the kids.

But, Stephanie instead gently placed Melvin down on the steps.

His hair was ruffled by the wind, and his glasses were almost off along with his tie.

The expression on his face is startled and a little shaken up from the sudden speed.

“You forgot a kid.” Stephanie gently spoke. “Just have a little patience with him, please.”

The bus driver looked confused from her gentle warning, as the kids looked surprised for some reason.

After warning the bus driver, she left Melvin where he is, walking back over to the school to get her backpack that she had left in the classroom.

Melvin snapped out of his daze, and quickly got to his seat, sitting down before the bus moves.

After he had sat down on an empty seat, he repositioned his tie and glasses, while the bus left the schoolyard.

When he started to brush his hair down with his hands, the kids started talking about Ms. Allen excitedly.

So, he eavesdrops on them, wondering what they could be talking about her.

“That was fast!” One of the kids exclaimed. “Did you see how the new teacher was running!”

“The teacher was running fast?” Melvin asked, glancing behind the side of the seat.

“Yeah, she looked like Bolt from that Disney movie!” Another kid spoke.

“No, like Lighting McQueen!” Another spoke, quipping into their option.

Melvin, on the other hand, was a little surprised at how fast she was going, but did not expect that to happen to him.

It felt like he was riding a horse for the first time.

That new teacher is acting strangely, but really friendly too.

Is this a new change for the school?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	2. Camp Troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today is the first day of camp, and things... started to get strange and troublesome.

The next day, Stephanie was excited to go camping, since she has camped before a long time ago.

But, everything stopped after that incident…

She is carrying her backpack on her back was filled with the items that she needs to keep herself healthy and clean during the time at camp.

Not only that, but several items that might help her get out of boredom.

Once she arrived at the school, she met Mr. Krupp, also with a backpack on his back and a grumpy look on his face.

Stephanie happily greeted him and asked him how he slept.

He grumpily responded he slept well.

Stephanie noticed he did not sleep well because of the slight dark bags under his eyes but did not bother asking about it.

Mr. Krupp told her she gets to ride with a school bus in case if there are any misbehaving children.

She nodded her head and asked him which bus she is riding in, telling him that she sometimes can get lost even after getting directions.

Mr. Krupp told her the bus number, and she thanked him, although receiving a glare in return.

When she reached the bus that Mr. Krupp told her, she got on the bus, seeing how many kids on it.

It made her feel nervous at first, but she calmed herself down slowly and looked around.

Each child has their own backpack and filled with different items.

Then, she looked at the back of the bus, before noticing two identical hands waving at her.

“Ms. Allen!” It was George’s voice as Harold was waving his hand along with him. “Over here!”

Smiling, she got over to their seat and sat down next to the chair, not noticing that someone was there in the first place, after taking her backpack off.

“Uh, you’re sitting right next to Melvin,” Harold spoke, pointing at the window.

Confused, she peeked behind her back, noticing Melvin, a little squished against the window as he had his backpack in his arms.

“Oops! Sorry about that, Melvin.” Stephanie apologized, about to stand up to her feet to sit somewhere else.

But, the bus began moving, and Stephanie is forced to sit back down, right next to Melvin.

Sighing, she glanced over to him with an apologetic look on her face, before moving to the side slightly, so that he can get some room.

“Sorry, Melvin.” Stephanie apologized again to him, as she picked her backpack up from the ground and hugged it in her arms. “I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s okay, Ms. Allen.” Melvin granted, pushing his glasses into place with a single finger. “I sometimes get that from other taller and bigger people than me.”

Stephanie absent-mindedly nodded her head, mentally agreeing with him, remembering times where she was squished against the window from someone taller than her.

She would politely try to ask the person to scoot over for her to get some room, but her asks would fall before deaf ears.

But sometimes she would ride with her friends, and they would sit by her but gives her some room when she politely asks for it.

“So, are you excited about camp?” George asked as Stephanie glanced to the left, snapping out of her thoughts.

“Yeah, what about you three?” Stephanie asked.

“I’m fine with this,” Melvin spoke, answering her question, although looking a little annoyed about it.

“I’m very excited about this!” Harold squealed quietly.

“I know!” George agreed. “We are going to do so much fun!”

“I don’t know about ‘we.’” Melvin spoke, sounding slightly gruff.

Stephanie raised an eyebrow in confusion, before asking, “Have you ever been camping before?”

“Not really.” Melvin sighed, turning his attention to her. “Sometimes my parents are busy with something, and I am left in my room the whole time. And... I hate going outside.”

A pause came from her as she thought to herself until the bus went over a deep bump.

It caused George, Harold, Melvin, and Stephanie to jump from their seats, causing them to cry out.

When they landed back on their seats, George’s tie was flipped over his head and covering one of his eyes, Harold looked startled from the sudden jolt, as Stephanie and Melvin’s glasses were almost off.

“Well, that was sudden.” Stephanie nervously chuckled, pushing her glasses back into place along with Melvin.

“Yeah, where are we going?” Harold asked as George moved his tie from his face.

Stephanie glanced out the window and noticed the buses were heading towards where there are many mountains and forests.

“I don’t think we are coming back to school.” Stephanie softly cringed, worried about what Mr. Krupp is going to do next.

“What?!” George and Harold softly exclaimed as Melvin looked worried.

“What do you mean by that, Ms. Allen?” Melvin asked, his voice edging over worry.

“Well, judging by how far we are going, and how deep we are going in the woods,” Stephanie explained, pointing to the moving trees. “Even if we decided to get away from the camp, we might get lost in those thick woods and go nowhere.”

“What about the drivers?” Harold asked, nervously tapping his fingers together.

“It might take a month,” Stephanie replied. “Remember that Mr. Krupp said that everyone in the school has to stay for a month?”

“Today is the 1st of March, so, we might have 30 days left until we get out of camp,” Melvin spoke, as Stephanie glanced over at her.

“And 30 days to have fun.” Stephanie beamed, changing the subject.

George, Harold, and Melvin had an uneasy look on their faces.

“Hey, Ms. Allen?” a student spoke, as she glanced up from the chair. “Could I ask you something?”

“Sure, what is it?” Stephanie responded, pushing back a strand of hair.

“How did you manage to get that much hair?” The student asked, mentioning to her hair.

Looking at her hair, she calmly responded, “It takes a lot of time and practice, and patience to get this much. Not forgetting a lot of shampoo and conditioner to wash it since it’s thick.”

Giggles came from the student when another asked, “Ms. Allen, do you know anything about plants?”

“Very much, yes,” Stephanie replied.

“Then, what are the trees we are going past?” the student asked, pointing at the moving trees.

“They are either Yellow Buckeye or just pine trees,” Stephanie replied, looking at them. “But, I have seen a Redwood tree.”

“There is such thing as a Redwood tree?” Harold asked, sounding surprised.

“Yep!” Stephanie beamed. “They’re in California and pretty huge. They can get to about 200 to 240 ft, and about 60 centimeters of thickness.”

“That’s thick!” A student cried out.

“Extra thick!” Stephanie joked, causing the students to laugh.

Even George and Harold laughed from that joke, laughing together as Melvin looked confused about it.

“I don’t get it.” Melvin sighed as Stephanie glanced at him, chuckling to herself.

“It’s from a TV show I used to watch when I was little,” Stephanie explained, her chuckling died down.

Now understanding what she meant, he looked confused about what the joke meant, as Stephanie noticed that he does not have a sense of humor.

Another bump came, and this time, Stephanie, Melvin, George, and Harold gripped the seat with their hands, worried about falling out of their seats.

After going over it, Stephanie sighed in relief, as Melvin once again repositioned his glasses.

George moved his tie from his face again, and Harold released the bottom of the seat.

“Feels like we are on a rollercoaster,” Stephanie remarked, pushing back a strand of hair.

“But this rollercoaster would be fun instead of heading for a destination,” Melvin spoke, pointing out the obvious.

Stephanie chuckled softly from his pointing and gently patted the top of his head with her hand as he looked confused about what she is doing.

“You’re right, I would’ve then this.” Stephanie sighed, agreeing with him.

Melvin gently cocked his head to the side of her response, when the bus abruptly stopped at a large campground.

Stephanie had to place her right hand on the seat while placing her hand against Melvin’s chest to keep him from flying forward, while he luckily had his hand on his glasses.

George and Harold did the same thing to each other when the bus stopped.

After the bus halted, Stephanie sighed and glanced over at Melvin, checking if he is okay.

The bus doors opened, allowing everyone to get out and gather their backpacks.

Stephanie patiently waited for Melvin to walk past her, while George and Harold followed behind him.

After they took a few feet away, Stephanie stood up from her seat and followed behind, slinging her backpack on her back.

When they stepped out of the bus, Stephanie felt her heart beats with excitement.

Standing with George and Harold, she excitedly glanced around, before Mr. Krupp appears, causing Stephanie to pause for a minute.

“Alright, I have split the cabins up with different students.” Mr. Krupp explained. “But, they have to cope with who they are staying with.”

Stephanie gently raised her hand up from the crowd of kids, and Mr. Krupp noticed her, sighing.

“What is it, Ms. Allen?” Mr. Krupp sighed.

“How many kids fit in a cabin?” she asked, moving her hand down.

Mr. Krupp was quiet for a moment before answering her question, “Three.”

Stephanie nodded her head and glanced down at George and Harold, as they both looked excited.

Mr. Krupp teamed the kids up with other kids, before turning to the last three, George, Harold, and Melvin.

“You three are going to be together in cabin 10.” Mr. Krupp spoke, pointing at all three.

Instantly, George and Harold glanced over at Melvin, as he glanced over at them, with an uneasy look on his face.

Mr. Krupp then glanced up at Stephanie as she waited for the order.

“Ms. Allen, you are in a cabin in the number 11.” Mr. Krupp spoke, flipping the page to check the list.

Stephanie blinked in confusion from his order, before Harold said, “Can’t Ms. Allen stay in our cabin?”

“There’s no room in the cabin.” Mr. Krupp coldly answered.

Stephanie walked past the boys to Mr. Krupp, and took off her backpack, before pulling out a sleeping bag.

“I actually packed myself a sleeping bag.” Stephanie pointed out, as the three kids looked impressed. “And I survived from sleeping on the ground for a long time.”

Mr. Krupp blinked twice in confusion, before sighing in defeat.

“Fine, but if I catch them pranking or pulling any stunts, they are separated forever!” Mr. Krupp warned, before walking away, grumbling to himself.

Stephanie sighed and shoved the sleeping bag into her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

“Let’s move to the cabin what Mr. Krupp said.” Stephanie smiled, trying to cheer the boys up.

George and Harold nodded their heads, before following after Stephanie, looking excited about their trip together.

Melvin, on the other hand, looked troubled with whom he had teamed up with.

“This is going to be the worst camping ever!” Melvin softly whined to himself, before being dragged to the cabin by George and Harold, taking his wrists with their hands.

When they reached there, Stephanie held up the cabin’s key, which had a tag on it, that reads, “10” on it.

She unlocked the door, and instead of a smell of pine, they encountered the stench of old must.

“Ew!” George groaned and covered his nose with his hand.

Harold also covered his nose too with his hand, as Melvin gagged from the smell.

Stephanie scrunched her nose up slightly from the smell, but was not fazed by it.

Using her right hand, she opened the door more and noticed that it was not clean inside, and there was dirt all over the floor.

“Wow, the last people who camped here is wonderful enough for cleaning this up.” Stephanie sarcastically spoke, sounding slightly annoyed.

George, Harold, and Melvin nodded their heads as Stephanie placed her backpack down on the porch.

“Let me clean it up a bit first.” Stephanie gently spoke, unzipping her backpack and rummaged through it for a moment.

She first pulled out a towel from her backpack, then some spray bottles and scrub brushes.

Stephanie placed them on the ground after taking them out, before reaching back into her backpack again, rummaging through it for a moment.

Then, she took out a rainbow tie-dye bandana, wrapping it around her face, before pushing it up to get her hair out of her face.

Then, she took the items that she had pulled out before from the ground, and entered the cabin, before closing the door.

“Stay out there for a moment, okay guys?” Stephanie asked, calling from the inside of the cabin.

“Okay,” Melvin answered, still looking uneasy.

George placed his hand on his shoulder, looking excited about something.

“Can you believe it?” George spoke, sounding excited. “We are going to be great friends!”

“Yeah, I can’t wait for that.” Melvin grimaced.

“What do you think we are going to do, George?” Harold asked, glancing over at George.

“Maybe so swimming in the lake?” George answered.

“And try seeing who can dive the deepest?” Harold added as they both looked excited.

“And I’ll just be on my side of the cabin to do my own things,” Melvin spoke, crossing his arms over his chest.

George and Harold glanced at him with slight unamused looks on their faces, as Melvin added, “And, I wouldn’t have much fun either since Mr. Krupp is avoiding any of those things.”

Huffing, they both glanced away from him, as George moved his hand from his shoulder.

“True,” Harold spoke, sighing in irritation. “But, didn’t that guy that came here before bought this place?”

“This is actually a new camp,” Melvin spoke, adjusting his glasses. “Since the last one was taken by that buyer, Mr. Krupp just invented a new one instead. This time, not dividing the camp in half.”

“Which is lucky for us,” George spoke, before noticing Stephanie opening the door and glanced out.

Her forehead is covered in sweat, and her clothes were a bit filthy.

Without a word to George, Harold or Melvin, she took out a dustpan filled with dirt from inside the cabin, dumping it on the ground, before going back inside to clean.

“Do you think Ms. Allen is acting a little... strange?” Melvin asked, wondering about her than about the camp.

“Why?” Harold questioned, looking confused.

“Well, she is weirdly acting nice than the other adults I have seen before in the school,” Melvin explained, naming out the things that he has seen before. “Not the type to bring up homework that is due tomorrow and likes to pull jokes.”

George and Harold paused for a moment, thinking to themselves about her too, understanding what Melvin means.

“Yeah, that is different from the adults.” George nodded along with Melvin.

Then, the door opened after a while of talking to each other, revealing to be Stephanie, slightly covered in dirt and dust, as her forehead is covered in more sweat than before.

She sighed and wiped some sweat from her face with her right arm, before saying, “Go ahead. You may enter.”

Melvin was the first one to enter, as Stephanie moved out of the way slightly for him to go through.

The inside of the cabin looked cleaner than outside, and there was no trace of dirt or dust.

The beds were on the back of the cabin with the large window, but not triple bunk beds.

Instead, they were side by side, but with no pillows or blankets.

There is some room in the middle of each one for the person to walk through.

There were no decorations either, so, everything looked plain.

“Okay,” Melvin glanced to the side, noticing there was a large table, just enough for a few items or more. “This is normal.”

George and Harold entered, noticing the cabin and smiled.

“Ms. Allen, you did one heck of a job with cleaning!” Harold smiled.

“Yeah, you should be a janitor than a teacher!” George remarked.

“Then Mr. Krupp would be wondering where the rude posters of silence and other things might be,” Stephanie added, pointing out the obvious.

George and Harold paused for a moment, now understanding what she meant.

Mr. Krupp would be angry at her for taking down the posters and cleaning too much of it.

The next thing they would know is Mr. Krupp firing her from her job.

“Yeah, you’re right.” George nodded.

Stephanie shrugged her shoulders gently and looked around, before asking, “Which part of the room you three want?”

George and Harold pointed to the right as Melvin pointed to the left.

“Okay, but we need to mark it in case if there is any misunderstanding,” Stephanie added.

George, Harold, and Melvin nodded their heads, agreeing with her idea.

Harold reached into his backpack and pulled out some tape, and the decoration was dolphins.

A light chuckle came from her as she glanced up at Harold.

“You are one heck of a dolphin lover,” Stephanie remarked as a light blush appeared on Harold’s face.

Chuckling, she walked over to the side of the bed where Melvin said he wanted it to be and placed the tape in between his bed and Harold’s.

Along the way, she smoothed the tape down while going down in a straight line, as the boys watched.

“She’s very nice,” Melvin spoke, pondering to himself.

“Yeah, and I’m so glad that we got her as a cabin friend,” George said, agreeing with him.

Harold nodded his head in agreement before saying, “I’m beginning to like her as a friend.”

A soft chuckle came from Stephanie as she finished putting the last of the tape down on the floor, before looking up.

“And I’m starting to like you three for your kindness,” Stephanie spoke, smiling gently.

All three blushed slightly from her comment, as Stephanie chuckled again.

“Anyways,” Melvin spoke, walking over to his side of the room. “Best if we unpack our backpacks, we might get ordered to get out of the cabin to do some walking.”

“At this time of the day?” Stephanie asked, mentioning the time. “There could be something out there! Not forgetting that there probably some poison ivy around here.”

George and Harold both nodded their heads in agreement, and took off their backpacks from their backs to unpack them, before noticing Stephanie.

“Oh, where are you going to be at, Ms. Allen?” George asked, looking slightly concerned.

“Do you need to mark your place?” Harold asked, before reaching into his backpack and took out another roll of tape, in blue color. “I got another tape.”

Chuckling, she waved her hand, shaking her head no.

“No, I can manage that,” Stephanie assured. “And I don’t need no stinkin’ tape!”

George and Harold laughed slightly from her joke, as Melvin looked confused.

“I don’t get it,” Melvin spoke, sounding confused.

“It’s from a movie when I was your age.” Stephanie softly explained to Melvin, while chuckling.

Melvin glanced away from her, thinking to himself for a moment as the laughter died down.

“But, I’ll sleep near the wall on George and Harold’s side because if I sleep in front of the door, someone is going to trip over me,” Stephanie explained.

“Fair point,” George spoke, agreeing with her.

Stephanie smiled and dragged her backpack over to her side of the room, which is to the nearest corner.

Melvin started to unpack his backpack, and to Stephanie’s interest, he had many chemical types of equipment, along with expensive ones too.

She glanced over at George and Harold, watching as they pulled out many items from inside their backpacks.

Gently shrugging to herself, she started to pull out her items from inside her backpack, which was first the sleeping bag.

She unfurled the sleeping bag and smoothed it out before her hand touched something cloth and filled with beans.

Confused, she glanced over to what she touched and noticed that the boys had pulled out bean bags from their backpacks.

A slightly surprised look appeared on her face when she noticed that.

“Oh, sorry, Ms. Allen.” Harold apologized. “I didn’t mean to get on your side.”

“No, it’s okay,” Stephanie assured him, sitting up slightly on her knees. “I’m sorry I got on your side.”

Melvin rolled his eyes and continued unpacking, taking out some clothes from his backpack and placing them into his drawer.

George and Harold did the same to theirs except George’s clothes are in the top drawer, and Harold’s is in the bottom.

Stephanie only left her clothes inside her backpack and pulled out other items, like for sleeping.

Only a pillow came out of her backpack, and she placed it down, finishing her unpacking.

She glanced over at the three boys to check on them with their work.

To her interest, she noticed there was a difference between the two sides of the cabin.

One side was science equipment as the other looked like it belongs to a clubhouse.

This inspired Stephanie from the difference, so she decided to draw this later.

Once they finished decorating and unpacking their backpacks, a loud whistle came from outside, and Stephanie glanced out the window she was underneath, seeing that Mr. Krupp was blowing his whistle impatiently.

“Just as I predicted,” Melvin spoke, sighing and pushing his glasses into place.

Stephanie, George, and Harold rolled their eyes in simultaneously from his prediction.

“What are you, a sapphire?” Stephanie sarcastically spoke, sounding slightly irritated.

“No, a sapphire is a gem,” Melvin explained. “I just guessed.”

Stephanie paused for a moment before shrugging her shoulders as Melvin looked a little confused.

Usually, when he points out a teacher’s mistake for what they did, they would push him away from what he said and continue with what they are doing.

But, Ms. Allen, on the other hand, did not bother to snap more or yell at him.

Opening the door, Stephanie followed after the boys, wondering if Melvin was right about what he had predicted.

Once they got up to Mr. Krupp, he glanced around the group to check the kids if they had come up to him when called.

Then, he noticed Stephanie among the rest, standing at the back of the group.

“What are you doing here, Ms. Allen?” Mr. Krupp asked, sounding confused. “Don’t you have anything to do?”

“No, I don’t. A principal always needs someone in need in case if either they are lost or injured.” Stephanie pointed out, before patting Harold’s head. “And in case if a child is left behind, lost or injured.”

Mr. Krupp rolled his eyes and looked at his list, as Stephanie straightened herself, putting her hands behind her back.

“Alright, we are going to walk through the forest and out two times to get used to it before we can settle down in our cabins.” Mr. Krupp explained, before hearing slight groans from the class. “And no complaining!”

Stephanie sighed and glanced down at Melvin, silently agreeing with herself that Melvin was right.

So, they went into the forest, while Mr. Krupp was leading the way.

Stephanie was nervous about where he could lead them to, as she followed behind, just in case if one of them stops or slows down from tiredness.

Luckily, none of the kids slowed down or stopped along the way, but Stephanie still kept her guard up for any attacks from any aggressive animals or any sudden holes.

Just as they reached a large clearing, that had a rocky cliff that reaches down another section of the forest.

Stephanie suddenly gasped when she noticed something, as George and Harold glanced at her with confusion, as Melvin was panting, placing his hands on his knees.

Mr. Krupp was backing up, checking if all the children were following him without noticing there was a cliff behind his back.

“Mr. Krupp!” Stephanie yelled, going around the kids as they watched her with confusion and slight panic. “Don’t step back too-!”

Too late.

Mr. Krupp’s foot slipped from behind him, causing him to cry out in startlement from the sudden drop, as Stephanie quickly sped up to catch him from falling.

But, he fell backwards, causing him to scream, as the clipboard that had the students’ names on it flung forward, smacking Stephanie hard in the face before she could get to him.

That impact of the clipboard caused Stephanie to fall backwards on the ground, as her glasses fell off her face and landed on the ground, unharmed.

The students cried out in panic after that clipboard hit her in the face.

They ran over to her as she slowly got up from the ground, seeing if she is okay, as some of them glanced over the side of the cliff for Mr. Krupp.

There was something black dripping on the ground, as her hair was covering her face.

“Ms. Allen! Ms. Allen, are you okay?!” one of them asked, sounding worried.

They did not notice the strange black drips on the ground, as they are focused on Stephanie instead.

“Y-Yeah,” Stephanie stammered, quickly taking out a tissue from her sweater pocket and placing it into her hand and covering her nose. “I’m fine. What about Mr. Krupp?”

Mr. Krupp, on the other hand, was screaming at the top of his lungs.

He plunged towards the ground, one hand on his toupee as the other was flailing around in a panic.

Just as the ground was coming up fast, he closed his eyes for the impact as he gritted his teeth, expecting a quick death for him.

But nothing happened after a while of waiting.

Confused, he braced himself, and opened an eye, noticing the ground was just inches away from his face.

Startled, he yelped and started flailing his arm again, before collapsing on the ground, face first and unharmed.

He groaned and got up to his knees, rubbing his nose in slight pain.

“Mr. Krupp!” He glanced up at the top of the cliff and noticed the students were peering down at him, as Stephanie was along with them, holding her nose with her right hand as her glasses were back on, luckily none of the lenses were cracked or shattered. “Are you okay?!”

“I’m okay!” Mr. Krupp called them, sounding a bit confused, but startled from the drop he went through. “Can-”

Before he could finish his words, a fist-sized rock hit the side of his head, causing him to make a funny face after the impact, before collapsing on the ground on his back, knocked out.

Everyone winced from that rock hitting his head as Stephanie winced too.

“I think we are going to need another teacher.” Stephanie sighed, her left hand running through her hair.

“Can Ms. Allen go to get them?” one of the students asked.

“No, she injured!” another protested. “She needs that nosebleed to take care of, you pea-brain!”

Stephanie sighed in slight annoyance from the argument and decided to do something for once.

After a minute passed as the kids were talking to themselves about getting a teacher to rescue Mr. Krupp or trying to save him by themselves, the tissue in her hand was covered in the same black substance that dripped on the ground.

A few drips were coming from her nose as she sniffed them back up.

So, she wiped it off quickly as she can with the tissue in her hand, and blew it, getting the rest out.

It startled the kids when she did that, as she sniffed a bit, before placing the black covered tissue back into her sweater pocket, and went over to the side of the cliff.

Looking at the details of the cliff for a moment, she went down to her knees and turned her body around, getting ready to climb down.

“Ms. Allen!” Harold cried out before she started climbing down, being careful as she can. “What are you doing?!”

“Saving Mr. Krupp.” Stephanie calmly answered, still climbing down by grabbing rocks that are sticking out. “I’ll find a way to get back up there once I got him, okay?”

“What if there is no way?” Melvin called, sounding worried too.

“Then I’ll climb the same way I got to him.” Stephanie calmly responded, glancing up at them for a moment.

She continued her way until she reached the bottom of the cliff, and jumped down, landing safely.

Using her hands, she placed one of them behind Mr. Krupp’s head to sit him up slightly from laying down on the ground and the other grabbing his wrist.

Checking for any pulses, she first checked his wrist with her left hand, as her right was holding him up.

She waited for a few minutes, before feeling a stable pulse, relieved to hear he is not dead.

Sighing, she moved his hand down from her, and moved her left arm underneath his legs, lifting him up from the ground without any struggles.

The kids looked surprised when they saw her lift a full and fluffy grown up from the ground, without any signs of struggles.

She glanced back up at the cliff, absent-mindedly noticing the kids’ shocked looks on their faces.

But, she did not look at them, instead concentrated on making her decision on getting back up to them.

Secretly, her metal eye scanned the area with an invisible scan for a moment without anyone noticing.

After the scan had finished, it showed the options for her to choose.

Some of them include hurting herself than Mr. Krupp, while others are just accidentally hurting him more.

But, she noticed one of them was safe, and the easy way to climb back up without accidentally dropping Mr. Krupp to the ground.

She chose that safe route and went to it while carrying Mr. Krupp in her arms.

Oddly enough, she did not show any signs of tiredness or struggles.

There was a trail of stairs on the side of the cliff, as she carefully climbed.

“How can she carry a heavy man like that?” George asked, sounding surprised.

“I don’t know,” Harold replied.

“Maybe days of training?” Melvin added, giving in their confused thoughts.

“Yeah, that could be it.” George agreed as Harold nodded his head.

When Stephanie came up to the top of the cliff, the three noticed a hand-sized bruise on the side of his head, as he was limp.

“Is he going to be okay?” George asked, sounding worried.

“He’s fine,” Stephanie responded, staring at the bruise on the side of his head. “He’s just knocked out from that impact of the rock.”

Relieved sighs came from the group, as Stephanie turned her body around towards the forest, as her metal eye did another invisible scan to retrace where they came from.

“So, where are we going to go?” one of the students asked, sounding worried.

After the scan had finished, she turned to the rest and said, “Follow me. I know the way back.”

The students glanced at each other worriedly, before back at her.

Stephanie paused for a moment, noticing their looks on their faces.

“Trust me on this, okay?” Stephanie softly assured them, before turning her back towards them and started heading towards the forest. “If you are not sure of that, go ahead and grab ahold of the back of my sweater.”

The kids paused for a moment, before nodding their heads, and the first child was the first one to grab a small handful of her sweater.

A long line of kids was holding onto each other’s clothes as Stephanie walked through the forest, heading back to camp.

Meanwhile, back at camp, one of the adults was panicking, nervously biting the tips of her fingers.

She has long brown hair that reaches down to her shoulders and covers her right blue eye.

The teacher is wearing a long white polka-dotted light red dress, that reaches down to her forelegs, with a white apron tied around her waist and covers her chest.

She is also wearing a pair of yellow gloves, and white socks, as one of them was down, and the other was up.

To top it off, she is wearing a pair of light red slippers.

She was nervously biting the fingertips of her gloves, looking panicked as she was quietly stammering to herself.

It was mostly about Mr. Krupp and where he could be at?

When Stephanie came out from deep within the forest, along with the kids, she noticed Stephanie carrying Mr. Krupp in her arms, knocked out cold.

She yelped in fear when she noticed him.

“I-Is he okay?!” she stammered, running up to Stephanie. “Wh-What happened to him?!”

“He just got knocked out, miss.” Stephanie calmly spoke assuring her. “Mr. Krupp was backing up too far and fell from a cliff.”

Her face panicked more from her explanation, and the other teachers appeared.

“We need a doctor!” one of them called.

The nurse came in with a gurney, and Stephanie placed him on top of it, as the teacher looked worried.

“Ma’am, you have to stay out here.” One of the nurses spoke before whisking him away to the doctor’s office.

Stephanie placed a hand on her shoulder as she looked down at the ground.

She looked like she is almost on the verge of crying.

“Hey, would you like to come into our cabin?” Stephanie gently assured her. “I think the boys would help you calm down.”

She glanced up at her, before nodding her head, as Stephanie gently lead her to their cabin.

Stephanie opened the door and let her inside, as the boys entered with her.

“How are you able to carry Mr. Krupp like that?!” George exclaimed. “He must’ve weighed a lot of pounds!”

Stephanie gently hushed them before mentioning the almost-crying teacher.

“She’s a little traumatized that Mr. Krupp is hurt, so ease up on asking those questions about the subject, okay?” Stephanie spoke, assuring them.

They glanced over at her, before glancing up at Stephanie, nodding their heads.

Stephanie sighed and turned towards her, taking her gloved hands.

“Ma’am, why don’t you have a seat,” Stephanie assured her. “Maybe some assuring can help you.”

She sniffled and nodded her head, before sitting down on one of the bean bags, as Stephanie sat down on a separate one in front of her.

George and Harold sat down on the bed next to them to watch their conversation, as Melvin sat down on the second bed, on their side.

“Mr. Krupp is going to be okay.” Stephanie gently assured her. “He’s just knocked out. It takes probably some minutes or hours for him to wake up.”

She nodded her head and sniffed again, as Stephanie noticed.

Reaching into her sweater pockets, she pulled out a crumpled tissue, before noticing it was the one that she used for her bleeding nose.

Placing that back in, she reached into her pocket deeper and felt the tissue packet, and took it out, before giving it to her.

“Here, this might help you.” She took it from her and blew her nose while Stephanie patiently waited for her.

“Thanks,” she thanked, sniffing a few times. “What is your name?”

“Stephanie,” Stephanie answered, gently smiling as she had her right hand against her chest. “Stephanie Nova Rose Allen, you?”

“Edith,” Edith responded, before blowing her nose again.

Stephanie smiled gently before asking, “Is there something about Mr. Krupp that you are worried about?”

“We have been dating for two years,” Edith answered, causing Stephanie to look surprised.

“Oh, so you’re the one that Mr. Krupp was being flustered about!” Stephanie exclaimed as Edith looked confused. “No wonder why he asked for that second slice of bread! I thought he was just hungry!”

“You were the one that made that delicious bread?” Edith asked, perking a bit.

“Yep!” Stephanie beamed. “It was banana nut bread if you are wondering.”

Edith paused for a moment, before asking, “Is there any of it? I didn’t get the chance to eat something since breakfast.”

“Sure, just let me get my lunch bag!” Stephanie perked, before getting up from the beanbag and headed over to her side of the room.

She unzipped her backpack and reached inside, before taking out her hand-stitched bag.

“Did you make that?” Edith asked, not crying anymore.

“Yep!” Stephanie nodded her head. “If you want, I could make you one!”

“I would like one.” Edith smiled, glancing away as Stephanie sat back down on the beanbag.

Stephanie opened her bag and reached inside, before taking out a whole loaf of bread, perfectly fine and not smashed from the weight of the items.

“Wow, that might be a real magic bag.” George pointed as Harold nodded his head.

“That’s the banana nut bread?” Edith asked, sounding confused.

“Yeah, don’t let the look make you disgusted,” Stephanie remarked, before opening the bag. “Let the smell and taste make your decisions.”

Edith still looked confused as she reached inside and took out a slice of bread, handing it over to Edith for her to eat.

Edith took it from her, and she reached inside again, taking out two slices and handed them over to George and Harold.

“Thanks!” George thanked, taking the slice from her along with Harold.

Melvin paused for a moment before asking, “Could I have a slice?”

Stephanie glanced over at him and nodded her head, reaching in and took out another slice, giving it to George.

“Can you hand it to him?” Stephanie gently asked as George took it from her.

“Sure,” He handed it over to Harold and repeated the same words that Stephanie asked him.

Harold held it out to Melvin for him to take, smiling at him.

He hesitated for a moment, before finally taking it from him.

Stephanie smiled, and reached back inside the bag, and took out the last slice, before placing it into her mouth and closed the bag.

Edith took a bite of the bread in her hand along with Melvin, as the two boys took big chomps of it.

“Oh, wow,” Melvin spoke. “This is good.”

“I know!” Harold nodded as there were crumbs on the corners of his mouth. “This is good with butter and milk!”

“Not forgetting lightly toasted,” George added, glancing over at Harold.

“What’s the recipe?” Edith asked, taking another bite.

“It’s an old family recipe, but I can give it to you.” Stephanie smiled. “But don’t look at me confused when I brought up about the bananas.”

Edith’s face blushed a bit when she said that word, as Stephanie chuckled.

“Not those bananas.” Stephanie joked, causing the boys to blush as well. “There’s a difference between both of them, but, very pleasant to enjoy in many various ways.”

“I-” Melvin spoke, before getting what she meant, his cheeks blushing. “Oh.”

Stephanie chuckled in slight amusement of their reactions and went back to telling of the recipe, repositioning herself.

“All you need is a pen or pencil, and a piece of paper to write on,” Stephanie explained.

“Oh, a pencil,” Edith remembered, before looking around. “Where could I-?”

Before she continues her question, George gave her a spare piece of paper along with a pencil.

“Thanks.” Edith thanked as Melvin did the same thing, except has a clipboard to write it down.

After all three got some utensils, Stephanie smiled and placed the bag to the side, sitting up straight to get comfortable.

“Okay, the first one is to write is the title of the food that you are creating, which is banana nut bread,” Stephanie explained as they wrote down the name of the food.

“How do you spell ‘banana?’” Harold asked, having troubles of spelling.

“B-a-n-a-n-a.” Stephanie slowly spelled, as Harold wrote the name down.

Stephanie patiently waited for a few minutes for them to write the name while pushing back a strand of hair from her face.

“Did everyone write the name down?” She asked, glancing at everyone.

They nodded their heads, and Stephanie smiled, getting a little excited that they are learning how to make her mother’s homemade recipe.

“Okay, this is the list of items that you need to gather, and to measure,” Stephanie spoke, warning them of the next list that she is going to list. “First, you need 3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts. Toasted if you wanted.”

Edith wrote down the first item of the list, while the kids did the same thing.

Harold had troubles of spelling out the words, so Stephanie calmly spelled it out for him, mostly for George and Melvin.

“Did you write that down?” Stephanie curiously asked after waiting for a few minutes.

They nodded their heads, and Stephanie went to the next one, remembering the recipe from the top of her head.

“Next is 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour.” Stephanie listed the next one, as they wrote that down.

Stephanie patiently waited for them to finish writing that down, as Edith helped the boys spell out words they did not understand.

After they let her know they had written it down, Stephanie went to list the next item down from the recipe.

“Next is 1 teaspoon of baking soda.” Stephanie listed, as they wrote that down on their list.

She did the same thing as Edith helped them spell out words, with a little help from Stephanie to help Edith spell out a few words that she misspelled herself.

After letting her know they are finished writing that down, she continued to the next one, as Edith was calm now, focusing on writing the list than worrying about Mr. Krupp.

Little did they know, the rest of the kids were listening to their conversation.

They are on the other side of the door, using the floor as a clipboard to write the instructions and ingredients.

And on the other side of the cabin were the teachers, also writing down the recipe, curious about the bread she meant.

When Stephanie reached to the part with the bananas, she did not say ripe, but instead said, “3 medium overripe bananas, mashed into a paste.”

They immediately glanced up at her, with slightly disgusted looks on their faces.

“Ew.” came from George and Harold.

Outside of the door, the kids looked up from their papers and made a disgusted look on their faces.

Some mouthed the word, “Ew.” quietly.

The adults glanced up too and mouthed the words, “Ew.” quietly.

“Told you.” Stephanie sighed.

“Why overripe bananas?” Edith asked, sounding confused.

“Because it makes the bread more delicious than normal bananas,” Stephanie explained. “We tried that out with the normal ones, and it was too sweet for us.”

Edith and the kids paused for a moment, before writing the ingredients down, although uneasy about what she said.

But, just in case if she is lying to them, they also wrote down, “Normal bananas if desired.”

The whole time, Stephanie kept listing out the list, before getting into the directions of how to make it, slowly saying one line at a time.

The teachers and kids were writing down each line at the same time and listening to the conversation.

But now that Mr. Krupp is okay at this time, there is finally peace, for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	3. Two Sides, One Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Krupp encounters something strange and something identical...

Mr. Krupp woke up groggily.

He groaned, and places a hand on the side of his head gently, shaking his head.

After he shook his head, he noticed he was standing on his feet, and somewhere dark, and colorless.

But, the only thing that was not colorless was himself when he glanced down at his hands.

Shaking his head, he got the slight dizziness out of his head as he glanced around, looking confused about the strange place he is in.

“Wh-Where am I?” Mr. Krupp mumbled to himself, his voice on the verge of panicking. “I-I remember falling down to the ground, and I suddenly was floating! T-Then I fell, but landed on the ground safely. But as I-I was calling up to them, a-a rock hit the side of my head!”

He slowly calmed down when he noticed that maybe he is in a part of his consciousness, somewhere that is in his head.

“Alright, I’m just knocked out a-and this is only part of a dream,” he mumbled loudly. “Maybe sometime I could wake up from this.”

He paused for a moment, his stomach clenching in worry.

Mr. Krupp was not too sure how long he was going to be out.

Deciding to take a look around the place, he noticed everything around him was almost like a ghost town.

Everything was empty, and there were only gray skies in the air with concrete ground underneath his shoes.

It looked almost as if he was the only one around in the town.

He shuddered slightly from the thought of that.

“Okay, you’re perfectly fine Krupp,” Mr. Krupp spoke to himself, trying to reassure himself. “M-Maybe someone else in this dream could help.”

He turned around, only to notice there was a fence behind his back.

“Where did that come from?” he curiously asked, mostly to himself. “I don’t think I was imaging a fence.”

Deciding to get a closer look at the fence, he cautiously walked up to it, hesitating a few times.

When he got up close, he waits for any barking or any growls, but nothing happened.

Confused, he looked at the fence and to his puzzlement, there was a different side than to his.

On the other side of the fence were clear blue skies and green grass.

“What?” He glanced at the reader, saying, “I don’t think I remember having that in my mind.” breaking the 4th wall.

He glanced back at the strange scenery, only to encounter a smiling face.

“Hi!” the figure loudly greeted.

The sudden appearance of the figure caused him to loudly scream in startlement, making him jump backwards and fell onto his back.

The being did the same thing with the screaming, but only got up in the air slightly.

To his shock, he encounters another person, except looked different!

He has fair skin color, black doe eyes, and bald!

Almost looking like him for some strange reason… 

The man is also wearing no clothes or shoes on, but wearing white underwear and a red cape with black polka dots.

He oddly looks familiar to somebody.

“Are you okay?” He asked, curling his fingers over one of the fences’ loops once he calmed down from being startled.

“Wha-Wh-Who are you?!” Mr. Krupp exclaimed, pointing at him.

The person blinked his eyes in confusion from his outcry, before moving his hand away from the fence, repositioning himself.

“I fight for justice, truth, and everything pre-shrunk and cottony!” He shouted as Mr. Krupp raised an eyebrow. “I am-!”

“Captain Underpants?” Mr. Krupp interrupted, now understanding who he is.

Captain Underpants glanced at him when he said his name and nodded his head.

“Yes, that is me!” He happily chirped.

Mr. Krupp blinked a few times, completely baffled that someone’s handmade, comic book hero is in his head!

“This has to be a dream.” Mr. Krupp sighed, turning his back to him, and placing his fingers against his temples. “You’re not real, and I’m asleep. I’m going to pinch myself, and everything will go away when I wake up from this nightmare.”

Pinching his cheek, he pinched hard enough that it hurts, hoping that it will be enough for him to wake up from this strange and bizarre dream.

Once he pinched his cheek, he slowly turned around, hoping the figure staring at him was not there.

But, he was still there behind the fence, looking a little confused.

“Why did you do that?” he asked, pointing at him.

Panicking, Mr. Krupp slapped himself in the face, before putting a hand on the side of his head, where the impact of the rock hits him.

“And that?” Captain Underpants asked, sounding more confused.

Annoyed that he is not going to go away, he snapped, “I’m doing that so that you’ll go away!”

Unfazed, he asked, while going up into mid-air and flipped over to his back, “What’s your name?”

Sighing, he glanced away from his, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Not going to answer.” Mr. Krupp scoffed. “It’s not that important.”

“Come on!” Captain Underpants whined. “I gave you my name! Do you want my true name to-”

“Alright!” Mr. Krupp turned back toward him and said, “My name is Mr. Krupp!”

Captain Underpants looked confused for a moment when he finally gave him his name, looking like he did hear that name before.

“Oh, what is it now?” Mr. Krupp snapped, uncrossing his arms.

“No, it’s just that, you look almost familiar to me.” Captain Underpants spoke, slowly floating side to side of the fence. “Even that name too.”

“Don’t be stupid!” Mr. Krupp snapped again. “I don’t even remotely look like you!”

A slight hurt expression appeared on Captain Underpants’ face, but shook it off and asked, “So, I wonder how my sidekicks are doing? I haven’t seen them since that last incident.”

‘Oh, that.’ Mr. Krupp softly growled at himself, baring his sharp canine teeth for a moment.

Of course, he remembers that.

After waking up with sore knuckles, aching back, covered in glowing green goo, and stripped down to his underwear.

But then he noticed the word “sidekicks” and turned back to him.

“Wait a moment, who is your ‘sidekicks?’” Mr. Krupp asked.

“It’s George and Harold!” Captain Underpants happily responded, floating back to his stomach. “They are the two friends of mine that-”

He was interrupted when he noticed that Mr. Krupp’s face was turning red, baring his teeth and revealing his canines.

Growling came from him as his hands were balled into fists.

“Are you okay?” he asked, sounding concerned. “You look like you are-”

A loud and angry bellow came from him as he stomped his foot, startling Captain Underpants as he backed away from him slightly.

He is frustrated that those two boys created a fool that is in his head!

“I swear! If I see those two pranksters again, I’ll kick them out of school forever!” Mr. Krupp angrily bellowed.

Captain Underpants’ face turned from confusion to terror.

“No! Don’t kick them out of school!” He whined, reaching his hand out for him. “They need to learn about things!”

Turning back towards Captain Underpants slightly with a confused expression on his face, until a sinister plan popped into his mind as he grinned.

“I have an idea,” He smiled, pretending to be friendly to him. “If I don’t kick them out, you’ll not do any heroic things to school or become a comic book hero, okay?”

Captain Underpants paused for a moment, thinking to himself about the deal between them both before turning his hand from reaching out to him, to shake on the agreement.

“Deal!” Captain Underpants beamed.

Mentally rolling his eyes, he took Captain Underpants’ hand, as the other was behind his back, crossed his fingers and hiding from plain sight.

He was going to kick them out of school, once he gets this freak out of his head.

After they shook on it, something bright went into their eyes, causing everything to go black.

* * *

Mr. Krupp woke up again, this time, laying on the nurse’s bed, and a bandage wrapped around his head, covering the bruise.

He was not in a dark and gloomy place, but in the nurse’s office and the doctor nowhere to be seen.

Confused, he reached up to the side of his head, noticing it was wrapped up.

‘That’s right,’ Mr, Krupp sighed, moving his hand back down. ‘I fell off a cliff.’

He slowly sat up somewhat from his bed, feeling slightly sore from sleeping on his back, although the bed he was laying on was a little soft.

Mr. Krupp was wondering what time is it today since he was knocked out earlier.

So, he glanced over at the clock and noticed it was about 7:30 in the morning.

He paused for a moment, blinking to himself, before remembering what he does at 7:30.

‘Oh, I’m late to do roll call!’ He quickly got up from the bed and stood up to his feet, but dizziness took over, making him wobble a bit.

He leaned against the side of the bed, blinking a few times, before shaking his head, pushing the dizziness out.

Then, he remembered George, and Harold, as an evil smile appeared on his face.

Since Captain Underpants is gone from his head, he could immediately-

‘ _ Hey, remember our deal, Mr. Krupp? _ ’ a familiar voice asked him, causing him to jump slightly from the sudden sound. ‘ _ Don’t expel the sidekicks now! _ ’

His evil smile instantly disappeared from his face when he heard the voice, feeling the tips of his hair on the back of his neck standing up.

Oh, no.

Gripping the sides of his head, he thought to himself, ‘How the heck are you still in my head?! I thought you were gone!’

‘ _ Uh, I don’t know. _ ’ Captain Underpants responded. ‘ _ Maybe we did something else that made us still in connection? _ ’

Irritated from the response that Captain Underpants gave him, he snarled, baring his teeth once more.

‘Well, disconnect with me and get out of my head, now!’ he mentally snapped.

A pause came from the two of them, and Mr. Krupp groaned to himself, finally getting that annoying noise out of his head.

Suddenly, something flew past his eyes.

Confused, he glanced up to see what was that, only to see a familiar red and white color go by his eyes again.

From the back of his head, he thinks that was a fly in the room.

Then, someone or something small appeared in front of his face, startling him again.

“ _ Hello! _ ” the object happily greeted him.

The same shriek came from him again, as he went backwards, before tripping over his own feet and fell, landing on his bottom.

It was Captain Underpants, about the size of a hand, floating in mid-air and looking startled at first from his scream, but calmed down.

“ _ Can you stop doing that? _ ” Captain Underpants politely asked, sounding a tad annoyed from being startled all the time.

“H-How are you here?!” He exclaimed loudly, sitting up.

“ _ Well, I don’t know. _ ” Captain Underpants responded, floating up to his face as he backed up a bit. “ _ Besides, I think this is the only way to ‘get out of your head.’ _ ”

Growling, half of his mind wanted to grab him and toss him out the window.

“No, I meant like out of sight, out of mind, literally!” Mr. Krupp snarled, before hearing footsteps from the other side of the door.

“ _ I wonder who is that! _ ” Captain Underpants remarked, before being grabbed by Mr. Krupp around the middle, causing him to squeak from the grip.

As quickly as he can, Mr. Krupp shoved Captain Underpants in the side pocket of his pants.

After shoving Captain Underpants into his pocket, he hurriedly snatched his wig from the counter.

He placed his wig on his head and quickly repositioned his tie, before standing up to his feet, wobbling a bit again.

Once he got himself organized, the door opened, and Edith stepped in, noticing that Mr. Krupp was okay and awake.

“Principal Krupp!” She beamed, before running up to him and hugged him. “You’re okay!”

Blush appeared on his cheeks as he lightly chuckled, trying to keep it natural.

“Y-Yeah, I am perfectly fine!” Mr. Krupp spoke, smiling. “J-Just a bruise!”

Edith glanced up at him and reached up with a gloved hand, gently touching the side of where the bruise is.

“Are you sure?” She asked, touching it gently as he slightly winced from the twitching pain. “It seems a little bigger than that rock that hit you.”

Reaching up with a hand, he gently took Edith’s hand and moved it away from his head, smiling gently.

“It’s okay, it’ll heal up sooner or later.” Mr. Krupp gently assured her, before glancing up, noticing someone was coming.

Then, the nurse appeared in the room, noticing Mr. Krupp awake and standing up on his feet.

“Ah, you’re awake!” She remarked, gently moving Edith to the side without roughly pushing her. “You need to sit down so that I could look at that bruise of yours.”

Mr. Krupp nodded his head and sat back down on the bed that he was lying on, his head aching a bit from a headache.

The nurse slowly took off his bandage and took a look at the bruise as Mr. Krupp patiently waited for the news.

After a few minutes of looking at it, the nurse quietly nodded her head to herself, moving away from him and asked, “How do you feel?”

Mr. Krupp paused for a moment after the nurse had asked that question, but responded, placing a hand on his cheek, sighing gently to himself, “Sore, and have a massive headache.”

The nurse nodded to herself and walked away, opening a cabinet to get out medication for Mr. Krupp.

Edith sat down on a chair in the back, looking a little worried for him, as she gently rubbed her hands together.

Mr. Krupp was going to speak to Edith to say he is okay, but the nurse came back over, stopping him from telling that to her.

“Here,” She handed him two pills in different colors and a medium-sized glass filled with water. “Those two pills are aspirin and pain killers. It could ease your aching and your headache and drink the water slowly.”

Mr. Krupp nodded his head and first swallowed the pills, before slowly drinking the water.

“How long is he going to stay in here?” Edith softly asked.

“Not very long.” the nurse answered. “Once his headache and soreness are gone, he needs to continue with what he’s doing.”

Mr. Krupp was silent for a moment, glancing down from the two, wondering what to do since he was late doing the roll call.

“He needs to keep that bandage wrapped around his head for a while until that injury is fully healed up.” the nurse continued.

Edith nodded her head, and Mr. Krupp finished drinking the water with the pills, already feeling the medicine kicking in.

Soon, the nurse started wrapping a new bandage around Mr. Krupp’s head, gently as she could without him snapping at her from the slightest twinge of pain.

Mr. Krupp during the time was thinking to himself about Captain Underpants and how did he get into his head.

Maybe asking those boys that first created the comic book character about that would help him get answers for that.

After the nurse had wrapped the last bandage around his head, she slipped it and tied it gently, before moving away from him to put the utensils away.

“Now, Mr. Krupp,” The nurse spoke, in a soft warning time in her voice. “Remember not to take that off for anything. Come back to me after a week or two comes, okay?”

Mr. Krupp silently nodded his head and walked out of the nurse’s office, as Edith was behind him.

After exiting out of the nurse’s office, Mr. Krupp sighed as he got ready to do his usual things.

But, before he walked off, Edith hugged his side, warming him up a bit from being cold.

“I’ll see you soon, Mr. Krupp.” Edith bided, as she walked away, heading towards the cafeteria happily.

Mr. Krupp blushed a little after Edith hugged her, as he walked away too, smiling happily to himself.

But, he switched back to his usual as he entered the campsite.

After he had gone into the campsite, he noticed Ms. Allen was gently bringing the kids out of their cabins, as they looked a little sleepy, but willing to continue with the day.

She noticed Mr. Krupp and smiled softly, looking relieved that he is okay.

“There you are,” She sighed, before mentioning to the bandage around his head. “How’s the injury?”

From behind her back, he noticed George and Harold, looking a bit relieved as well.

Mentally, he wanted to expel the two from what they did to create that stupid comic book character, but remembered the deal, so, he kept it to himself.

“It’s fine!” he snapped, getting into his usual, as Ms. Allen flinched slightly from his snap. “Nothing wrong with that!”

Ms. Allen sighed after he had snapped, crossing his arms over her chest.

“Sorry for being worried about you.” Ms. Allen sarcastically spoke to him. “I was just getting these kids out of bed for you to bring up an idea of getting them from being bored.”

Mr. Krupp rolled his eyes and straightened himself, getting ready to say a harsh idea of making them miserable throughout the month.

“Why not fishing?” Mr. Krupp asked, slightly smirking as there were groans from the crowd of kids. “That could get them out of boredom.”

Ms. Allen frowned slightly from that idea, and shrugged her shoulders, deciding not to mouth back at him.

“Alright,” But then she turned back to him, saying, “Then, it’s my turn to come up with an activity, okay?”

Mr. Krupp was going to say something about what she said when Captain Underpants unexpectedly spoke before he could, “ _ Alright! _ ”

Ms. Allen luckily turned around to walk with the kids, as Mr. Krupp flinched from that voice.

‘How are you still here?’ He asked, gritting his teeth.

“ _ I don’t know. _ ” Captain Underpants spoke, as he came out of it, floating in front of his face. “ _ But why fishing? Aren’t there games? Like tag, hide-and-seek, paintball, and-? _ ”

‘None of that!’ Mr. Krupp snapped, turning his back towards him and headed back to his cabin. ‘There is no such thing as fun!’

Captain Underpants sighed and landed on his shoulder, looking a bit irritated from his stubbornness of fun.

‘The last thing I want was a teacher involved with it!’ Mr. Krupp snapped, opening his door and entered his cabin, sitting down in his chair and began writing papers.

Captain Underpants said nothing about it but just sat on his shoulder, watching him writing down papers on bills.

This day would not get any worse, can it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	4. A Ditzy Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next morning was very... ditzy...

After fishing finally finished, Mr. Krupp decided to get some breakfast from the cafeteria.

Maybe he could ask Edith for any coffee to help his head?

When he entered the cafeteria, he saw Ms. Allen sitting with George and Harold, talking to them happily while Melvin was in front of the three, listening to their conversation.

“ _ Hey! It’s them! _ ” His mood slightly changed into a growl.

Of course, he could not forget that one either.

Using only his eyes, he glanced down at his chest pocket, noticing that Captain Underpants was peeking out from the top, watching the boys eating and talking to each other.

“ _ Is that Melvin with them? _ ” Captain Underpants asked, also noticing him.

‘Yes, it’s them.’ Mr. Krupp mentally snapped, glancing away from him. ‘Now, get back in my pocket and be quiet!’

Captain Underpants did what he said and ducked back inside, as Mr. Krupp walked over to the group.

Ms. Allen glanced up from talking to the two boys and noticed him, with the same foul mood on his face.

“Ah, Mr. Krupp!” She happily chirped as she waved to him. “Good morning! How are you feeling now?”

George, Harold, and Melvin did the same thing, glancing over at him.

“Great.” He growled through his teeth, before repositioning himself and straightening his tie. “Did the boys do any pranks during the fishing?”

“Not what I think of.” Ms. Allen answered, rubbing the back of her neck from underneath all of her hair. “They were participating too, so, nothing happened during it. But strangely enough, there was no fish in the water either, so, it was a bummer.”

Mr. Krupp nodded his head, as the kids passed around him, looking scared as they finished their breakfast fast.

“Alright, I have something to tell you, Ms. Allen.” Mr. Krupp spoke, glaring at George and Harold as they both moved close to Ms. Allen, feeling a little frightened. “Keep a close eye on them if they do any pranks or anything fun. I want a simple, point actuate schedule for everyone!”

Ms. Allen was silent as he spoke, glaring at them both with daggers in his eyes.

“And if I catch them doing any pranks or anything in general to break the routine,” Mr. Krupp warned. “They will be separated forever!”

Ms. Allen paused for a moment, before nodding her head, gently wrapping her arms around them protectively as a mother would do to her children.

“Yes, sir.” She nodded her head. “I’ll keep an eye on them.”

“Melvin,” Mr. Krupp spoke, as Melvin turned to him. “You also would keep an eye on them if they caused anything to Ms. Allen and come to me if it gets out of hand, for extra credit.”

Melvin nodded his head as Ms. Allen looked slightly confused while George and Harold frowned, glancing at Melvin for a moment, before up at him.

He cleared his throat and said, “Now, I better be off and go get something to clear my head from that last incident.”

Mr. Krupp turned his back and walked away from the four, heading back over to the teacher’s cabin after exiting out of the cafeteria.

Ms. Allen removed her arms from George and Harold, as they both sighed in relief.

“Well, you were right about one thing, boys,” she spoke, as they glanced up at her. “He is insane about making everything organized and boring.”

“I know?!” Harold exclaimed. “This is why we break the rules so that the kids could have fun!”

Melvin frowned a little from what Harold said.

Ms. Allen paused for a moment, thinking to herself, mostly about Mr. Krupp in general.

“And, Melvin is keeping an eye on you two for extra credit?” Ms. Allen asked, pointing at him.

“Well, I always get extra credit,” Melvin spoke, answering to Ms. Allen’s question. “And, I tell the teachers if something is going on from those two trouble makers.”

“More like tattle on us,” George whispered as Ms. Allen looks a little suspicious.

Melvin glared at George as Ms. Allen rolled her eyes.

She glances back up at him, and it was an unusual look in her eyes.

It was not kindness and generosity.

It was more like suspiciousness.

That made Melvin feel a little worried about what she could be thinking about him.

“Tell you what, Melvin.” Ms. Allen spoke, placing her hands together. “You’ll also receive extra credit from me if you do us three a little favor.”

“What’s that?” Melvin asked, sounding confused.

“If you don’t tattle on George and Harold,” She mentioned to the kids sitting right next to her. “They’ll not do any pranks, okay?”

“What?!” George and Harold exclaimed, looking startled at her little deal.

“Really?” Melvin asked, looking a little surprised.

“Yes, I’ll keep my eye on them.” Ms. Allen assured Melvin as George and Harold glanced at each other worriedly from each side of her. “Is that a deal?”

She held out her right hand for a handshake to shake on the deal across the table, and Melvin hesitated when he saw something in her eyes.

They looked like they were glowing slightly, in a fiery blue color like her eye color.

“Deal.” Melvin finally spoke, shaking her hand.

Since she is an adult compared to him, it was a little bigger than his own hand.

She blinked, and the look in her eyes disappeared as a bright smile appeared on her face.

After shaking on the deal, she released Melvin’s hand, and he released hers, feeling a bit worried about what he could be dragged into.

“Great!” Stephanie beamed as she stood up from the table. “Let me just speak to George and Harold for a moment!”

With her arms, she gently wrapped them around their middles and picked them up, with her strength, unlike Mr. Krupp.

She did not seem like she was struggling to keep them up in her arms as she giggled softly.

After she had picked them both up from the seat, she walked over to the corner of the cabin, where no one could hear her talking to George and Harold.

Melvin glanced down and hummed to himself, thinking of that glow in her eyes.

He had never seen that happen before.

Is she more than what she is?

From the corner of his eye, he noticed that her hand-stitched bag was left on the table, and it was open.

Curious about what could be inside, he picked the bag up from the table across from his side and noticed that it was actually pretty light.

But, he remembered she usually put things that are heavy inside.

So, using his hand, he reached into the bag to get what could be inside, when he noticed he could stick his whole arm inside and there was no bottom!

Confusion and surprise replaced his curiosity, as he moved his arm out of it, startled that something that is the size of Ms. Allen’s forearm could be light and has no bottoms!

He flipped the bag over to look at the bottom to see if he had accidentally popped any stitches when he reached into it.

As he was flipping it over to check, he heard something clatter from out of the bag and landed on the table with a few other items.

The noise of the items caused him to jump from the sudden noises, but not to scream out.

Worried that he might have broken something from looking at the bag, he looked at what fell out, only to notice it was some sketch pencils and a drawing book.

His stomach twisted nervously at the thought of Ms. Allen being angry at him, so, quickly as he can without anyone coming into the cafeteria, he scooped the pencils up in one swift motion with his hand and placed it into the bag, when he stopped at the sketchbook.

What could she have drawn before?

His curiosity got the best of him, and he placed the bag down on the table.

Before he could pick the sketchbook up from the table, he hesitated for a moment, feeling anxious if he is going to be in trouble with another teacher.

But, he wanted to know what Ms. Allen has been doing before she became a teacher.

So, he picked the sketchbook up from the table.

The cover was a blue color, and the back was too.

He looked at the rim of the book and noticed her name was nowhere on it.

Melvin flipped back over to the cover, wondering to himself for a moment, before thinking about what she could be drawing.

Before he could open it, someone’s voice asked, “Melvin?”

Yelping, he fumbled with the book in his hands, before catching it.

Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed it was a girl, her arms crossed over her chest and an eyebrow raised.

“E-Erica!” Melvin stammered, clutching the book in his arms against his chest.

Erica is African-American and wears a teal green T-shirt under an aquamarine vest and has a large pom-pom hairstyle joined by a purple headband.

She also wears jeans and rain boots.

“Wh-What are you doing here?” Melvin stammered, his cheeks flustered.

“I came here to see what no good you’re up to,” Erica answered.

“O-Oh, I was just drawing something.” Melvin lied, glancing away slightly. “You know, science stuff?”

A pause came from Erica, as Melvin mentally panicked.

“Okay, just come outside, we’re going to go swimming from what I heard from Ms. Allen,” Erica spoke, before leaving him in the cabin.

After Erica left, Melvin sighed and removed the sketchbook from his chest, thinking to himself.

What does Ms. Allen draw inside the sketchbook?

Meanwhile, Ms. Allen is talking to George and Harold secretly, kneeling down to their height so that she can be comfortable.

“So, you want us to trust you?” George asked, sounding confused.

Ms. Allen nodded her head and pushed back a strand of hair over her ear.

“Yeah, trust me on this, okay?” Ms. Allen smirked. “Mr. Krupp will have his mind blown away when he sees something off.”

She giggled at the end and stood back up to her feet.

“Now, let me see what Melvin got into.” Ms. Allen walked back over to the table that they were sitting at, while George and Harold looked confused.

“Are you sure we can?” Harold asked, sounding unsure.

“Of course!” George replied. “You don’t want Mr. Krupp to see us without Melvin or Ms. Allen if we decided to prank? We will be separated forever, and we won’t let that happen again?”

Harold paused for a moment, before nodding his head, silently agreeing with him.

“Yeah.” He glanced back at George. “You do have a point.”

Meanwhile, with Melvin, he hurriedly placed the sketchbook into his backpack that he carried with him.

Once he had zipped it up, Ms. Allen’s voice asked, “Melvin, are you ready?”

Flinching, he glanced over at her and nodded his head.

“Y-Yeah, one minute!” Melvin called, slinging the backpack over his back. “But let me get changed into my swimming trunks in the cabin!”

Ms. Allen nodded her head and said, “George, Harold, are you two coming?”

“Could we get changed too?” Harold asked.

“Yeah, we can’t swim in your clothes,” George added.

“Sure, I’ll just wait out the cabin.” Ms. Allen nodded before exiting the cafeteria.

After she had left, George and Harold glanced at each other for a moment, before following after her.

Melvin also followed after them, thinking to himself about Ms. Allen too.

When they reached their cabin, George, Harold and Melvin entered, as Ms. Allen waited outside for them to change into their swimming gear.

Melvin quickly placed the sketchbook in one of his drawers without George and Harold noticing what he was doing, before getting into his swim shorts.

After getting into his swim gear, he puts on flip-flops and exited out of the cabin, without looking at George and Harold.

When he stepped out, he closed the cabin door behind his back, as Ms. Allen glanced at him when she heard the door open and smiled.

“You look nice, Melvin.” She gently remarked, winking.

“Er, thanks.” Melvin granted, glancing away, blushing a little.

Looped over one arm is his towel and carrying sunscreen in the other hand.

He was wearing a pair of orange swim shorts that reaches down to his knees.

“So, what are we going to do?” Melvin asked, glancing up at her from blushing.

“I don’t know,” Stephanie answered. “We could be doing laps from one side to the other of the lake, diving, or something.”

Melvin blinked at her in surprise.

“That’s what you did back at your home?” Melvin asked.

“Kind of.” Ms. Allen answered. “It’s what I do in the pool in the backyard of my home.”

“You had a swimming pool?” Melvin asked, sounding a little surprised from her response.

A slightly sad look appeared on her face after Melvin asked that question.

“Yeah… I did…” She softly spoke, pushing back a strand of hair.

Melvin noticed that he might have accidentally touched something sensitive, so, he instead went silent, glancing away from her.

After a moment of silence, Ms. Allen noticed he had collected a few items for swimming.

“Hey, uh, Melvin?” Ms. Allen spoke as he glanced back over at her. “What’s the sunscreen for?”

He glanced down at it and responded, noticing she was changing the subject, “It’s for keeping my skin normal without getting a tan. Don’t you know that?”

Ms. Allen nodded her head and bent down to his height a little, as he noticed that she does not look a little stuffy from wearing that sweater.

“Aren’t you going to swim with us?” Melvin asked as George and Harold came out of their cabin.

Ms. Allen winced when he asked, as she got back up to her height.

“Oh, no, I… I just can’t.” She answered, sounding worried as she placed her hands on her forearms.

“You don’t like deep water?” George guessed, asking her.

Ms. Allen paused for a moment, glancing away from them and rubbing her right arm with her left one.

Melvin noticed the look on Ms. Allen’s face that she looked scared and a little worried about being in a swimsuit.

Before Melvin could ask why she is scared, Mr. Krupp’s whistle blew, and Ms. Allen glanced over her shoulder, looking over at him.

“Alright, everyone, head over to the lake now!” Mr. Krupp called, as every student got out of their cabins. “Ms. Allen, you need to be at the docks for you to tell them what to do!”

Ms. Allen quiet nodded her head and followed them, still looking a bit uncomfortable.

When they got over to the lake, Mr. Krupp suddenly stopped walking, looking startled.

The other kids looked to see what Mr. Krupp was surprised about, only to see it was a water slide lake.

There were many types of play areas, types of slides, even some hot tubes too.

“Wh-What?!” Mr. Krupp exclaimed, startled from the sudden transformation of the lake. “I-I didn’t expect this!!!”

Then, he turned his attention to George and Harold, knowing too well of their pranks from the following years he went through.

“George! Harold!” He snapped at them as they both flinched before pointing at the slides. “Did you two do this?!”

“N-No!” Harold stammered, moving his hands up defensively.

“If we did, it would cost a lot of money if we called for help!” George responded.

“And our pranks wouldn’t be that far!” Harold added again. “Nor this creative either!”

Melvin looked a little distressed that he might have failed a test that he was given to.

Mr. Krupp had an unamused look on his face when Ms. Allen called to the kids, “Alright everyone!”

When they glanced over at her, she was carrying a lifeguard loop around one arm and has a whistle around her neck.

In her right hand, she is holding a hot dog in her hand, covered in ketchup, relish, and mustard.

“There is no running on the lake and no food in the water, okay?” Ms. Allen asked as the kids looked excited. “Now, first pick a place where you want to relax, before going into the lake. And have fun!”

The kids nodded their heads and quickly sped walked to get their places, as Melvin, George, Harold, and Mr. Krupp looked confused.

“YOU DID THIS?!” Mr. Krupp angrily yelled, his face red.

The kids flinched from his yell and quickly moved away from him.

Ms. Allen slightly turned her body around to him and slightly shrugged her shoulders to the response of his question.

“Mh, yeah, I did.” She smiled.

“HOW?!” Mr. Krupp bellowed. “WE DIDN’T EVEN SEE YOU CALL ANYONE OR BUILD ANY OF THIS IN THE BEGINNING!”

“Not forgetting creating all of this in one day,” Harold added, sounding surprised.

Mr. Krupp gave Harold a quick glare as he went quiet before glancing back at Ms. Allen.

Ms. Allen chuckled and fully turned towards them, as Mr. Krupp stomped up to her face.

“I thought I told you to keep an eye on them!” Mr. Krupp snapped at her in the face as she looked unfazed by his screaming. “Not to make more havoc! You’re going to-!”

He was suddenly interrupted when Ms. Allen gently shoved the hot dog that was in her hand into his mouth as he took a bite of it.

A confused look replaced his anger, as he moved his hand up to it, chewing the bite in his mouth.

Ms. Allen smiled gently and patted his cheek softly.

“I know, but I couldn’t help but agree with the other teachers.” Ms. Allen mentioned to the teachers, who were also in their swimming clothes, also picking some other spots and laying out their spare towels.

Out of surprise, Mr. Krupp spat the half-bitten hot dog out of his mouth, luckily catches it in his hand before it could land on the ground.

“Them too?!” He exclaimed. “I-I-! Wha-?!”

Chuckling, Ms. Allen placed her hand on his shoulder, smiling softly.

“Don’t you feel bored with doing the same things over and over?” Ms. Allen gently asked as he raised an eyebrow. “I already feel bored during that walk that we went through earlier on the weekend, but, this time, it’s my turn to show you what fun is.”

With a single digit of her left hand, she gently poked his chest, but it was not a hard poke.

“And you’re going to have to get used to it,” she smirked, as Mr. Krupp looked a bit confused.

She removed her hand from his shoulder and turned to George and Harold, kneeling down to their height.

“It’s best if you two go and pick your spots before it is all taken up.” Ms. Allen nodded as the two looked excited.

“Really?” George asked.

“Yeah, and,” She paused, and she reached behind her back for someone.

She gently took Melvin by the arm and dragged him in front of her from behind.

When he was in front of her, she gently placed both of her hands on his shoulders.

Melvin, on the other hand, looked confused about what she is going to do with him.

“Take Melvin with you. Show him what fun is too.” Ms. Allen smiled again.

Immediately, Melvin glanced up at her, with a shocked look on his face, as only babbles came from his throat.

They both nodded at the same time, and each gently grabbed his wrists with separate hands, dragging him with them as he looked unsure.

When they are in the distance away from the adults, Ms. Allen turned to Mr. Krupp and patted his cheek once more.

“Why don’t you have fun too?” Ms. Allen smirked slightly. “Someone does want to see you too.”

She moved her hand from his cheek and walked off, to check on the kids if any of them are breaking the few rules she gave out.

After Ms. Allen left Mr. Krupp in confusion, he was still holding the half-bitten hot dog in his hand that he had spat out before.

Mentally, his mind was telling him to fire her right now on the spot once he has the chance to meet her.

But, the other half of his mind was telling him that Ms. Allen could be right with what she means.

Then, a hand was gently tapped on his shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts and causing him to flinch a bit.

He glanced over to see who it is, only to get his face blushing a bright red color.

Standing behind him was a slightly blushing Edith, as she pushed back a strand of hair over her ear.

Edith was wearing a large sun hat, with a red dress that reaches down to her ankles, decorated with beautiful white flowers on it.

She was not wearing her yellow rubber gloves from work, and her hands look a bit smaller than Mr. Krupp’s, which looked really adorable.

From underneath the dress, she is also wearing a light red bikini, that has a small skirt.

The bikini made his face redder, almost to the tips of his ears as he bit his bottom lip internally.

It was surprising that he had not dropped the half-bitten hot dog in his hand.

To top it off, she is wearing a pair of flip-flops too.

“Hello, Principal Krupp!” She greeted him, her cheeks blushing too. “H-How are you?”

“B-b-bubba bobba hob-hobba-hobba wah-wah...” Mr. Krupp stammered, unable to say anything to her.

She was beautiful, and he could not help but not to look away from her.

Edith chuckled and gently wrapped her arm over Mr. Krupp’s, as his cheeks blushed a bit more.

“Shall we get a spot?” Edith asked, mentioning to the sand.

Mr. Krupp shook his head to snap out of his daze, gathering his wits together.

After shaking his head, he nodded, before taking a bite from the hot dog in his hand.

Meanwhile, George and Harold dragged Melvin over to a large empty spot on the sand and stopped, before releasing his wrists.

“Wh-What are we doing?” Melvin stammered, feeling nervous about doing a prank at the teachers.

Or worse, getting in trouble with the teachers.

But, George and Harold placed their belongings on the ground, before turning to Melvin.

Melvin had already placed his belongings on the ground and spreading out his spare towel.

They both hum to themselves in sync as they placed a finger against their chin.

A nervous feeling grew inside of Melvin, worried about what they are thinking about him.

“We gotta do something about your glasses,” George spoke, sounding a bit worried about him. “You can’t see well without them, right?”

Melvin quietly nodded his head, before taking them off, revealing he has black doe eyes too.

“I can see slightly, but,” He paused as he squinted, trying to see clearly. “I can’t see who is who precisely. Everything around me is blurry.”

He was right because there is a black blur standing in front of him with a blond one next to it.

George nodded his head and glanced over at Harold, as Melvin placed his glasses on.

“Don’t you have any contact lenses you carry?” Harold asked.

“No, even if I do, it would cause eye infections and irritation from the water and could damage my eyes,” Melvin answered, pushing his glasses into place.

George and Harold slightly winced when Melvin explained what would happen if he did put on any contact lenses in.

“So, one of us has to stay with him just in case if he gets into someone or something?” Harold asked, mentioning to him.

George nodded his head, and glanced over at Melvin asking, “Do have a case for your glasses?”

“Of course,” He took it out of his pocket and revealed it to them. “I always take it with me.”

It was in an orange color like his hair.

“Okay, put your glasses away and trust us with this, okay?” George spoke, smiling slightly.

Melvin hesitated for a moment, feeling unsure of what ideas they are getting, but decided to go along for the ride.

After taking the glasses off of his face, he placed them in the case that he has with him.

He closed it and placed it by the sunscreen that he carried with him too.

Melvin squinted a little as he watched one of the blurs walked over to him and gently took his hand.

“Come on, I know a ride that you’ll like!” George spoke before leading him away from the spot they were.

Meanwhile, Ms. Allen continued watching the kids from the grass, gently smiling to herself as she scanned the horizon.

The kids and adults played in the water, swimming, and playing chicken fight with a few other kids.

Others played on the water slides and laid on the sand for a suntan.

“Ms. Allen?” She turned towards the sound of the voice, to see George and Harold, as George has Melvin behind him, holding his hand.

Melvin, on the other hand, was squinting a lot, and he noticed a towering blue blur in front of him.

Mentally, he remembered that towering blue blur was Ms. Allen.

“Yes, what is it?” Ms. Allen responded as Melvin glanced up at her, squinting a bit to see her better instead of seeing a big blue blur in front of him.

“Could we try the water slides?” Harold asked as Melvin flinched a bit.

Truthfully, he had never tried any of the water slides before.

And he was not too positive if he could try them in the first place.

A pause came from Ms. Allen, then, she said, “You may, but only two people on each slide. You can try taking turns with Melvin.”

A light blush appeared on Melvin’s cheeks as he gently squeezed George’s hand to let him know he was embarrassed.

“Uh, we can’t stand two minutes apart, Ms. Allen,” Harold spoke, sounding a bit anxious. “Plus, I have separation anxiety.”

Melvin perked a little from what Harold said, wondering how he got that from?

Ms. Allen paused, thinking to herself again with an idea of a way to help them.

“Maybe I could help?” Melvin’s heart skipped a beat when he heard that familiar voice asked.

It was Erica’s voice.

He turned towards the voice, but could not see where she is.

“I’m over here, Melvin.” Melvin turned the other way, before encountering another black blur, but wearing something purple with the mixture of brown.

Immediately, his cheeks flustered more.

“What are you going to do with him, Erica?” George asked.

“Nothing, just helping you two enjoying time together instead of taking turns with him,” Erica explained.

A slight shameful look appeared on his face as he glanced down.

“So, you are going to take turns with him like us?” Harold asked.

“Yeah, first is you, George, then Harold, then me, okay?” Erica explained.

Melvin was not sure if they had nodded their heads, but guessed they did.

Soon, he was dragged over to one of the rides and slowly climbed up the steps.

His heart beats in a panic, worried something terrible would happen to him, or George that is holding his hand.

As soon as they reached the top, George stopped and waited for their turn, as Melvin started trembling a bit.

They were pretty high up in the air, and he was worried that this makeshift water slide might fall over from the weight of the kids waiting in line.

“G-George?” Melvin stammered, gripping his hand tightly.

The black blur in front of him turned back to him, as Melvin was shaking from head to toe.

“What’s wrong, Melvin?” George asked, responding to his call.

“I-I’m scared,” Melvin spoke, trembling like a leaf.

He continued shaking, expecting George to laugh at him for what he said to him, but instead placed a hand on his, as he flinched slightly.

“Don’t worry,” George assured him as he looked slightly confused about his assurance. “Harold was scared too, when we both were on the water slides back at an amusement part. But, I helped him to be brave. Now, I am doing the same thing to you like him.”

Melvin paused for a moment before taking a deep breath, gathering his courage together to try not to show any fear to George and said, “Alright, I’m ready.”

The black blur nodded its head and turned back over to the side of the water slide.

When they were close, George spoke, “I’m going to be the first one to get onto the tube. Then, I’ll lead you onto it, okay?”

Melvin shakily nodded his head and followed George, as he felt him step onto the tube.

Then, it was Melvin’s turn to step onto it.

Being careful, Melvin slowly got onto the tube too, along with the help from one of the students.

“Ready?” the student asked, waiting for their permission.

Instantly, he regretted going with them to have “fun.”

Before he could reply to what the student asked, George instead responded before him, “Ready!”

Immediately, Melvin gripped the handle on the side of the tube, his heart skipping a beat as he yelped quietly to himself.

The student that was helping to hold the tube for them gently pushed it towards the slide, as a slight whine of panic came from Melvin.

His hand tightly squeezed George’s hand, shaking like a leaf as they inched closer to the edge of the slide.

This is not what he is expecting everything to be.

Then, the ride began.

They zoomed forward and tightly turned corners, as Melvin gritted his teeth, tightly holding George’s hand and the handle on the other.

George was whooping as they went along the ride, as Melvin stayed quiet, gritting his teeth and clenching his hands.

Then, they suddenly passed over something bright, and Melvin glanced up, noticing that there was clear plastic over their heads, revealing the sky.

Then, the clear plastic over their heads disappeared, as they went around into a spiral, George is whooping and crying out in happiness, as Melvin was gripping both the handle and his hand, gritting his teeth still.

Soon, they came out of the tunnel and into the water, as Melvin finally released his teeth and was shakily breathing in and out.

“That. Was.” George released his hand, as Melvin did the same thing, leaving a hand-shaped form on it. “AWESOME!”

George lifted his hands up over his head after saying the last time, laughing to himself.

Melvin glanced over at him, looking a little confused, mostly a little shaken up from the ride he experienced.

“Harold!” George called over to him. “You gotta try the ride! It’s awesome!”

Melvin was silent the whole time, glancing up at the ride they went through, before back over at George.

Was it really ‘fun?’

After they got out of the tube, as George helped Melvin out on his side, mostly getting his grip released from the strap he clutched onto.

Once Melvin was off, and into the lake water, which was a little cold for him, George placed it on the lifter to get up to the ride they went on.

Melvin was still thinking to himself about what he had experienced as George was putting the tube away for the other kids to try, mostly trying to figure out if it is what he guesses it could be.

“Come on!” George once again took his hand, snapping him out of his thoughts and waddled towards where he thinks Harold is. “Let’s see which one Harold wants to pick next!”

A slightly concerned look appeared on his face as he was gently tugged out of the slightly cold water.

When they came up to them, Harold was talking to Erica as Erica was listening to him.

“Oh, hi, George!” Harold greeted before noticing something. “Your hand is a little red.”

Melvin noticed what is going on and quickly released his hand, a little ashamed for gripping it tightly.

“It’s okay, Melvin was just a little scared,” George explained as Melvin’s blush brightened a bit more.

“Melvin was scared?” Erica asked, sounding a bit confused.

“Yeah, I think his parents didn’t have time to let him go play or go outside since they were doing scientist things,” George spoke, as Melvin looked more ashamed. “But this is his first time having fun!”

Melvin perked a little when he heard that, a little confused at how nice they were acting.

“So, which one you wanna pick, Harold?” George asked, walking away from Melvin.

“Oh, there’s a lot to pick!” Harold exclaimed, pausing for a moment before saying, “Maybe that one?”

Melvin looked confused about which one he pointed at, so he stubbornly glanced over at which slide, only to see blurs.

“Alright, but remember to always stay with him, Harold!” George warned before Harold took off, grabbing Melvin by the left wrist.

Melvin was dragged over to another slide, as he glanced up at it, noticing it was in a different color than the other one he was on.

The previous one that he was on was in yellow, as this one was in a blue color.

Harold excitedly climbed up the steps, as Melvin was following after him, feeling a little tired from being dragged around by the two.

Soon, they reached the top of the slide, and Melvin can feel that Harold was excited by how his hand was gripping.

“C-Calm down, Harold.” Melvin stammered. “At this rate, you might bounce off the walls.”

“I-I can’t!” Harold responded. “Oh my gosh, are those dolphin floaties?!”

‘Okay, that was unexpected.’ Melvin thought to himself.

Soon, it was their turn when the first two people went, leaving them to be next.

Melvin’s heart started beating faster when they came closer.

When the two kids went off, Melvin noticed there was someone there, helping them on the tubes.

The blur has beige skin and some brown hair.

Melvin felt self-conscious about who that might be.

“Could I be in front, Bo?” Harold excitedly asked as Melvin flinched from the name.

“Sure!” Bo responded as Harold released Melvin’s hand.

Melvin watched as the blond blur was being picked up by the beige blur before it turned to him.

“Is he your friend?” Bo asked, turning to Harold.

Melvin stood there, slightly shaking as he wrung his hands together in worry.

“Yeah! We’re teaching him about fun!” Harold responded as Melvin looked surprised.

Does he respect him as a friend?

A pause came from the giant blur named Bo, as Melvin sweat a little in fear.

“Okay.” was the only response from Bo before being picked up by him.

Melvin stiffened when he was picked up from underneath the armpits, worried that Bo might toss him over the edge of the water slide tower.

Instead of being tossed in the air over the side of the water tower, Bo gently placed Melvin behind Harold on the dolphin tube.

Melvin was shaking like a leaf from encountering Bo, mostly from the idea of going on another heart-thumping ride.

So, he instead wrapped his arms around Harold’s middle, just for keeping himself on the dolphin.

After he had wrapped his arms around Harold, he once again regretted what he chose and wanted off the dolphin.

But something inside of him stopped him from calling out to Bo to get him off, as he felt confused.

Maybe his joints froze when he was too scared?

“Ready?” Bo asked, speaking from behind Melvin’s head.

“I’m ready, Bo!” Harold excitedly spoke, almost bouncing up and down on the dolphin tube.

Melvin mentally cringed to himself with the idea that he had with him, mostly blaming Ms. Allen for letting them drag him along.

But, as soon as Bo gently pushed the dolphin forward, it dipped down for a moment, and Melvin’s grip around his middle tightened a bit.

Harold whooped in excitement as the dipping stopped and took a turn, acting as if they were on a bobsled.

Then, they entered a tunnel-less area, where it was like a whirlpool, as the ridges were over adult height.

Soon, they went into another tunnel, diving faster down the slide as Melvin’s grip around Harold is loose a bit, as he watched the blurry scenery around him go past.

Then, they suddenly went up and launched into the air, as Harold whooped in happiness, and Melvin screamed from the sudden launch, as his grip turned into a death clamp.

They landed back onto the slide and Melvin shakily sighed, as Harold was shakily panting, his voice slightly hoarse from crying out.

Then, they exited out of the tunnel and across the top of the lake.

Harold cried out in excitement as Melvin cried out in startlement.

They both tumbled off the dolphin at the same time and went into the water.

The water was not freezing anymore like the last time that Melvin entered.

Melvin got up from the water, dripping head to toe.

His orange hair was covering his eyes slightly but can still see.

Somewhat since he is not wearing his glasses.

He looked around for Harold in a slight panic, when something appeared in front of him, causing him to yelp out and fall back into the water.

“That was awesome!” Harold’s voice came, confirming that blonde blur is him.

Then, the blonde blur turned to where Melvin thinks is where George and Erica are, saying, “George, you have to try the blue one! It’s fun!”

“Other side, Harold!” George spoke. “And push back your hair!”

Melvin paused for a moment, thinking to himself about the ride that he went onto, before glancing up at it.

“Melvin!” Melvin glanced back at Harold, as he had already placed the dolphin away for the other kids to have a turn.

He waddled over to him through the water and gently took his hand.

“Come on, it’s Erica’s turn!” Harold spoke, quickly walking through the water to get to them.

Melvin’s cheeks blushed when he mentioned Erica.

Once they got over to them, Harold released his wrist and got over to George, talking to each other about the rides they went on.

Then, a gentle hand took his, as he glanced away from the ground, noticing another black blur was next to him and wearing purple.

His blush went up another shade when he met up with Erica.

“Hey, wanna go on a ride?” Erica asked, not sounding annoyed about him.

“S-S-Sure!” Melvin stammered, before glancing away from her, fanning his face to stop heating up.

After he agreed with her, Erica gently leads him towards a more relaxing one, which is a little okay for Melvin, but could ease his mind off from the two that lead him to their slides.

“Why here?” Melvin asked, sounding confused.

“Because I want to talk to you, Melvin,” Erica spoke, before getting on a tube, and letting Melvin follow her.

Melvin silently climbed onto the tube, before being released at the right time of a large patch of emptiness.

After an awkward moment of silence, Erica was the first one to break the ice between both of them.

“Uh, you let go of my hand now, Melvin.” Melvin glanced down at his hand and noticed he was still holding hers.

“Oh,” He quickly released his hand and moved it towards his body, slightly ashamed for keeping her hand in his. “S-Sorry.”

Another moment of awkward silence, and Erica asked, “How are George and Harold so far?”

“Confusing.” Melvin quickly answered. “I just don’t get it! I thought they were just so immature! But, they instead are “teaching” me of fun!”

Erica was quiet for a moment, listening to his words without any signs of boredom on her.

“I-I accept the fact that I need to stay close with them in case if they are in trouble for extra credit, but this is not what I was expecting!” Melvin continued, before stopping. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, I understand.” Erica nodded her head, turning her body towards him. “Have they already told you about what they are diagnosed with?”

Startled, he turned to her, looking slightly confused.

“D-Diagnosed with what?” Melvin stammered, sounding a bit more worried about them.

Mentally, from the back of his head, he wonders why he was worried about them.

Erica sighed and said, “They never told you?”

“I never asked them,” Melvin added, glancing away from her.

Another pause came from between the two of them, as Melvin felt embarrassed that he was too stubborn to ask them of their weird behaviors.

“Maybe if you ask them, they could explain to you about what they are diagnosed with,” Erica assured, patting Melvin’s shoulder with her hand.

Melvin paused for a moment, feeling unsure of what Erica assured him with, but wanted to know why they are acting strange.

So, he glanced back over to her and nodded his head.

“Alright, I’ll try talking to them.” Melvin sighed, feeling a bit unsure about what he was going to do next.

Erica glanced away for a moment, as Melvin thought to himself about his decision, wondering if it could be okay to talk to them.

Although he gets easily angry with them from the slightest thing they do, like eating too loudly, tapping their fingers or something that they do when they are bored.

“Hey, is that Edith and Principal Krupp?” Erica asked as Melvin glanced over his shoulder to where she pointed to, snapping out of his thoughts.

Despite not wearing his glasses, he could see what the colors are of the clothes Edith is wearing, but there was a green color next to where she is sitting.

Erica noticed that Melvin was having trouble seeing what she means to, so, she moved over to where he is and started explaining to him.

Melvin’s face turned red when she got closer to his body, feeling like he was going to faint at any moment.

“Wh-What’s going on?” Melvin stammered, trying to get his mind back on track.

“Well, I see Mr. Krupp in a vacation outfit, with shorts and flip-flops,” Erica responded, explaining to him of what is going on. “And he’s flirting with Miss. Edith.”

Melvin chuckled awkwardly from what she had explained to him, as he glanced away from her.

The whole time they were in the lazy pool, that goes around in a slow circle, they talked to each other, getting to know about each other slowly.

Meanwhile, on the shore, Stephanie watched the crowd of kids and teachers relaxing on their spots.

Sometimes they would play in the lake, along with going on the rides.

Everyone looked happy, including Mr. Krupp with Edith.

This is what she had planned.

Glancing down at her right hand, she flipped it over to the palm and stared at it for a moment.

A soft glow came from her steel-blue eyes as she stared at her hand, thinking of something in the back of her head.

“Ms. Allen?” A young girl’s voice asked her as she snapped out of her trance.

The glow in her eyes was gone in an instant after she had blinked.

She glanced down at the girl, as she asked, “Why are you staring at your hand?”

She paused for a moment, before responding, “I am staring down at my hand because I was checking if I got any sunburns.”

Ms. Allen had white lied to the young girl because of her innocence.

The young girl nodded her head and asked, “I have a question though, do we have to give money to get hot dogs or anything?”

“Nope,” Ms. Allen gently shook her head no. “It’s all free. But listen to the person serving your hot dogs or any food, okay?”

The young girl nodded her head, and went off, before being called from Ms. Allen, “No running on the lake, please!”

The young girl slowed down her pace when Ms. Allen called to her, before being greeted by George and Harold, as Erica was behind them, holding Melvin’s hand.

Harold’s hair was covering his eyes, and Stephanie felt a little confused, mostly amused at how much he has.

“So, how were the rides?” Ms. Allen asked, kneeling down to their height.

“Awesome, Ms. Allen!” George responded. “The yellow ride is my favorite!”

“The blue one’s my favorite!” Harold added, before moving some hair from his face with his hand. “It had dolphin tubes!”

“I like the relaxing one because it helps my mind,” Erica spoke.

Melvin opened his mouth to say something, but could not choose which one that he likes!

They all seemed to be… ‘fun’ to him!

He felt eyes staring at him from the back of his head, as he frantically tried thinking of a way to tell them about what he likes.

“You couldn’t choose one?” Harold asked as Melvin sighed.

Melvin nodded his head in defeat, his grip around Erica’s hand loosen a bit.

He expected laughter from all four of them from his response but instead felt reassuring pats on his shoulder.

“It’s okay!” George spoke. “Harold didn’t know which movie that he liked either when we were watching a movie in our treehouse.”

Harold glanced away while blushing, chuckling to himself slightly.

“I can’t help it! They both are awesome!” Harold gently objected as Ms. Allen in the background was lightly snickering to herself.

Melvin thought to himself about what Harold said earlier.

They both are impressive to him, but it is okay not to choose which one is better than the other?

Ms. Allen smiled and got back up to her feet.

“It’s best if you all go ahead and eat something, it’s almost lunchtime.” She spoke, mentioning to the other kids lining up to eat some food. “But remember to listen to the person before eating your lunch.”

They nodded and went over to their spots, as Melvin was dragged along, still looking a little doubtful and confused.

Ms. Allen smiled a bit from his confusion, hoping that someday, he would understand and could learn from them entirely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	5. Night Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melvin decided to take a "quick" peek at what Ms. Allen hides in her sketchbook...

That night, Melvin could not sleep.

He was wide awake and lying flat on his bed, staring up at the ceiling of the cabin that all three of the kids and one adult share.

Melvin’s blankets were orange and covered in science objects, like flaskes, chemicals, and others.

His mind rambled with the thoughts of why George, Harold, and Ms. Allen act so strangely around him when he is with them at activities?

Even with Erica too!

Sighing, he sat up in his bottom and rubbed the side of his head, feeling tired and confused at the same time.

He picked his glasses up from the desk beside him, and placed them on, before glancing over at the two beds beside him, looking at George and Harold.

They both are sleeping peacefully together, side by side on different beds.

Harold was wearing dolphin pajamas, like his blanket that he brought with him was in a dark blue color, and sleeping on his front, hugging the pillow with his arms.

George is wearing rocket pajamas as his blanket was a light red color and sleeping on his back.

His blankets were red and halfway off his body, as one leg was sticking out from the top.

Melvin glanced over at Ms. Allen on the ground, wondering if she is awake as he was.

But she was asleep too, snoring peacefully and softly cocooned in that blue sleeping bag of hers, as there was a small pillow underneath her head.

Mentally, he does not know if she is either is wearing pajamas underneath that sleeping bag or not.

Wisely, he chooses not to see for himself.

Then, his mind moved to the blue sketchbook he found earlier in the day.

He wonders what could be inside that book of hers.

Pushing the blankets off his body, he quietly got up from the bed and tiptoed over to the drawers, where he had placed the sketchbook inside.

His pajamas were almost like his blankets, except his shirt was in a lighter orange color, as his pants were in a dark color.

Opening one of the drawers slowly, he peeked inside and found it, right where it was where he placed it before.

He picked it in his hands, and quickly, but silently closed the drawer, before going back over to his bed.

Once he got over to his bed, he got onto the bed, and it made a silent creaking noise, which made him frozen, hoping none of the people heard that.

A soft snort came from George, as he flipped over to his side, facing Harold, mumbling something from underneath his breath.

After George moved in his sleep, not even bothered by the creaking noise, Melvin sighed quietly in relief, before grabbing the blanket and pulled it over his entire body.

Underneath his blanket, he reached under his pillow and took out a blue glow stick, that was not cracked or used.

Being careful and quiet as he can, he slowly snapped the glow stick as it gives off soft cracking noises.

A faint blue glow emitted from the stick after he finished cracking it with his hands.

When the brightness was just enough for him to see clearly, he placed the book in front of him as he was lying on his stomach.

He flipped over to the first page of the sketchbook and encountered a pretty good drawing of someone, a girl with long hair, and a young man with the face darkened.

They both appeared to be wearing wedding clothes, as the woman is wearing a beautiful blue-wait a minute.

Melvin took one more glance at the female, wondering who she is.

She has long brown hair, a slightly chubby face with hazelnut eyes.

Her skin color was tanned almond, which appears to be identical to someone.

But, not only the skin color but the dress that she is wearing looks similar too.

She is wearing a long-sleeved dress, as it was dark at the top and slowly fades into a blue color at the bottom.

The hemmings are small golden stars, and at the ends of the dress too.

The style of her body was chubby, and short, reaching the man standing right next to her’s chest.

The man next to her has fair skin color and slight stubble that is growing in.

His hair is short and in the color of brown, but his face was not revealed in the drawing.

He is wearing a dark red suit, with a light red tie, and maroon pants, with black shoes.

Underneath his suit is a white shirt, with buttons.

In the young girl’s hands are blue roses, as she had a happy smile on her face.

Was Ms. Allen married at one point?

Then, he noticed something around the woman’s neck.

It looked like a necklace.

The necklace has a silver chain with a gold heart for a pendant.

Confused, he looked around the picture for any writing about this picture, until he found it, which was at the bottom of the drawing.

The writing was in beautiful cursive, and it reads, “My dream of being married to <strike>Evan</strike>.”

The name of the person that she is going to be married to is scratched out, indicating she had a divorce with that person.

Around the writing were some black stains on it, along with some visible spots of tears.

But there were some spots with a mixture of both.

Confused, he flipped the page to the next drawing, only to encounter a picture of staring eyes, as there was someone in the middle, huddled into a wall and covering their head.

He does not know who that person is, but could say they are scared.

The bodies of the people staring at the person are multiple and in different shapes and sizes.

Not only the eyes that are creeping Melvin out, but their smiles too.

It seems like they are smiling evilly at that person for some reason.

He glanced around the picture for any writing on the page until he found it.

It was underneath the picture like the other one.

It reads, “They are looking for me.”

A startled look appeared on his face when he read that writing at the bottom of the picture.

Who is looking for whom?!

He glanced over at the next picture to ignore what he had read, but encountered a more horrific drawing.

It was a drawing of a young girl, trying to reach out for something, as there were other bodies embedded into her.

They all looked like they were trying to get away from her, but was stuck together.

The number of the bodies was 11, as the girl has her body features, but the other 10 does not.

In the middle of the group of bodies was a gem-like heart.

Some different types of gems are stuck together randomly but in colors.

Red was the first one, then orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

It was just like a rainbow.

But, at the end of the rainbow was pink, black, and white.

A sick feeling was in his stomach as he glanced down at the text, as it reads, “Stuck together forever.”

Shuddering, he flipped to the next page, hoping it is nothing gruesomer than the one that he had seen before, but it was a more scary one.

It was a tall, lanky creature, with dark red eyes, with pinprick pupils.

It has long, messy jet-black hair, covering some of its eyes, as two long dark red horns are out of its forehead and over the top.

The drawn creature has fair skin color and grinning insanely, revealing its long and sharp white canines.

It also has long black claws for fingers, and its arms reach down to its thighs.

On the back were bat-like wings, two on the top and two at the bottom, as it was in the color of dark red and black.

The creature also has a long arrowhead dark red tail and standing on its hind legs.

Goosebumps formed on Melvin’s arms, as he shuddered quietly to himself again, already feeling a bit creeped out from Ms. Allen’s drawings.

He glanced down at the writing for which this drawing is called, and it reads, “Sallmolin.”

Even the name creeps him out with the picture.

Mentally, he told himself Ms. Allen was just an excellent artist that draws pretty good art and that the creature is not real.

Maybe some grotesque art too, to add.

Melvin glanced over at the next page of Ms. Allen’s drawing, only to be surprised about what was the next picture is.

It was a different drawing than the other one that he looked at.

The drawing was a picture of an angel, with beautiful long white hair that reaches down to her hips.

She has pale skin color and sea blue eyes.

The angel also has petite lips with the nose and small ears.

She is wearing a long beautiful white dress, with a cross around her neck.

On her forehead was a headdress with a cross on the front as a pendant.

Behind her back were four pairs of long white feathery wings.

She looked gorgeous too, even if she was only a drawing.

Melvin looked down at the writing at the bottom of the drawing, and it reads, “Lailah.”

A curious look appeared on his face when he heard that name for a hand-drawn angel.

Then, he flipped over to the next drawing, and it shocked him, maybe creeped him out at the same time.

It was a drawing of Ms. Allen, crying, but her left eye has black teardrops.

Somehow, he has doubts that Ms. Allen could cry black tears.

But, he noticed there were small details of her too from the picture.

Her left eye looked more robotic, along with her right hand too.

And the left-hand side of her head is replaced with long, thin strands of wires.

Melvin blinked in confusion a few times, not processing with what he is seeing.

Could Ms. Allen be a cyborg in disguise?

He shook his head slightly at the thought of that, ignoring that fact in her head.

Melvin glanced over at what the picture is showing Ms. Allen’s arms wrapped around the angel, named Lailah, and the creature, named Sallmolin.

The angel was crying along with her, with a sad look on her face as she held her hand.

The creature, on the other hand, was gritting its sharp teeth, baring them as it glared at Ms. Allen with angry eyes.

It was grasping Ms. Allen’s right wrist if it is an angry parent to her and disciplining her.

But, the right metal hand looked like to be slowly transforming into like the creature’s claws.

The left hand looked perfectly regular at the way she is holding it.

Melvin glanced down at the writing at the bottom, and it reads, “Trouble with the balance between light and dark.”

A confused look appeared on Melvin’s face when he read that writing on the bottom of the picture, wondering what it means by that?

Could Ms. Allen be having troubles?

Or does she have schizophrenia?

Before he could flip over to the next two pages of what else drawings she has, a tired voice softly asked him, “Melvin?”

It was Ms. Allen’s voice!

Startled, he quietly yelped and shoved the sketchbook underneath his pillow, before grabbing his dictionary and pulled it out, flipping to a different page to make it look like he was reading that instead of hers.

He pushed the blanket down from over his head to see her, noticing she was wearing pajamas.

It was a long-sleeved light blue shirt, with long black tight pants with socks.

Her glasses were off, but, Melvin noticed that her eyes have a faint glow to them.

It was just like the ones that he saw when Ms. Allen made a deal with him.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, before yawning, revealing sharp canines to Melvin’s mental surprise. “Why are you up in the middle of the night?”

“Oh, uh, reading my dictionary.” Melvin lied to her, smiling nervously.

Ms. Allen blinked a few times, before softly chuckling, pushing back a messy stray of hair.

“I didn’t know you can read.” Ms. Allen spoke, sighing gently.

“I can,” Melvin spoke, his sass on the verge of his voice. “Everyone can read books.”

“Not all Melvin.” Ms. Allen softly spoke. “Some people have dyslexia and have trouble reading.”

Melvin opened his mouth to respond to her comeback, but stopped himself from replying and silently agreed with her.

He does know a few students that have troubles and felt a tiny sorry for them.

Ms. Allen sighed and asked while coming over to him, “Is there a reason why you’re up? Is there a spelling bee that you have to complete tomorrow?”

“No, I just couldn’t sleep,” Melvin responded, closing his book and placing it underneath his pillow, right beside the sketchbook that he had found inside of her bag. “I was still thinking to myself about what happened earlier.”

Ms. Allen paused for a moment before saying, “Would you like me to sleep with you?”

Immediately, Melvin’s face blushed a light red color.

“I don’t mean like that way, I meant like a comforting way.” Ms. Allen explained to him to understand what he thinks she meant. “Doesn’t your mother do that to you?”

Melvin did not respond to her question, glancing away from her with a slightly sad look on his face.

Ms. Allen noticed the expression on his face, realizing what he was silently saying to her.

Melvin sighed after being quiet for a while, hesitated for a moment, before saying, “Okay.”

Ms. Allen softly smiled and walked over to his side.

Melvin moved to the wall of the cabin so that she can get room to sit down first.

She sat down next to him, before laying her head down, and wrapped her arms around his body, moving him closer.

He blushed a little as she pulled the blanket up with her left hand, as her other was still around him.

“Is this comfortable for you, Melvin?” Ms. Allen asked, taking his glasses off and placing them on the desk behind his back.

He only nodded his head in silence, too shy to even say something to her.

She noticed that Melvin was shy and decided not to say anything to him.

Luckily, he was down to her stomach, as she was gently hugging him around his body.

Not too much to accidentally suffocate him to death in his sleep.

After the two got comfortable in bed, Ms. Allen was the first one to fall asleep, as Melvin was a little awake, but slowly getting sleepy.

Soon, Melvin fell asleep with her, curling up against her to get some warmth from her body.

As the night peacefully passed, everything around them is still and no sign of anyone awake in the middle of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	6. Morning Switches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new day, a new and strange change...

I woke up, this time, not in the dream realm earlier.

Groggily, I placed a hand against the side of my head, noticing that the bandages that are covering the bruise are gone!

Yep, this is definitely a dream.

I removed my hand from my head, and glanced around, noticing everything around me was dark, but the ground was in a light gray color.

Deciding to look around at where I‌ was, I‌ was about to take a step forward when I‌ heard a familiar voice snapped from behind me.

“Benjamin Krupp!” a female’s voice snapped, causing me to stiffen up.

I recognize that voice well too many times.

Bravely, I turned towards the person who called me, only to see it was my mother.

She looked almost like me, except meaner and cruel than me.

She has brown with gray streaks hair, has gold earrings, wears a purple with a white top, blue jeans with a bull horn belt buckle and cowboy boots.

“Where were you?!” she snapped, her hands curled into fists. “I thought I told you to watch the cows!”

“I, well, I,” I stammered, acting like a fool in front of her.

I was scared of my mother.

“I what?!” Mom snapped again, grabbing my left wrist harshly. “You’re supposed to look after them, not running off to be a principal!”

I got angry at her from her response to me being a principal.

“I chose to be a principal, mom!” I snapped back at her, pulling my arm away from her. “I didn’t just run off to be a principal!”

But her grip on my wrist was firm, despite my strength.

“Then why didn’t you return to the ranch?” She snapped, pulling back towards her. “I thought that since 2 years have passed, you should return!”

“I didn’t want to return, mom!” I snapped at her. “You constantly push me away when I wanted you with me!”

“Dang straight that I didn’t!” Mom growled, trying to drag me with her. “That is the only way I know is to make you toughen up! You’re always a sweet major disappointment to-”

Before I knew it, my anger had got the best of me, and I smacked her across the face, causing her to release my left wrist.

She took a couple of steps back, holding her cheek with her right hand, softly wincing to herself, before collapsing on the ground with her back.

I blinked in confusion after I had unleashed my anger at her, before feeling something wet against the tips of my fingers.

Confused, I glanced down at my right hand, only to my shock to see the tips of my fingers covered in blood, as my nails were pointed into claws.

I quickly glanced up at my mother with a slightly shocked look on my face, to see she had removed her hand from her cheek, revealing five claw marks slashed across her face, only stopping at the bottom of her eye.

I paled a bit when I realized I had scratched my mother!

“Did-Did you just scratch me?!” She exclaimed, moving her hand in front of her face to see the damage I have done to her.

“M-Mom, I-!” I had stammered a few times before a headache went into my head all of a sudden, causing me to place my non-clawed hand on the side of my head.

I closed my eyes as ringing went through my head, causing me to feel nauseated.

“DID YOU JUST SCRATCH ME?!” the tone of my mother’s voice changed from confusion to anger instantly.

But, not only the change of emotion, the tone of the voice changed into a male’s voice.

I opened my eyes to see someone else than my mother in front of me, only seeing a man lying on the ground with his hand on his cheek, where I had scratched him like my mother.

I couldn’t see what the man looked like because the darkness is covering his face, but his body was in the lighting.

He looked like to be a scientist.

He was wearing a long black cloak and wearing a white shirt underneath.

His structure was skinny with some muscles, but there were a few signs that he is deathly sick.

“K-Kill him!” he shrilled, pointing at me as if I was a monster, as there were more people suddenly behind him, staring at me with empty white eyes. “Kill him at once! I want him dead on the spot!”

Instantly, they all brought out some weird technology from the back of their coats, along with shockers too.

The technology that they have brought out is a goldish-brown arrowhead-tipped tuning fork with a pale yellow, oval-shaped orb suspended between the tips.

It looked almost like a tuning fork for gems.

They charged at me to “kill” me, and I instantly know that this dream that I am in, is turning into a nightmare.

Without a second chance, I quickly turned around, and ran away from them, as I heard shouts from the person who I thought were my mother, shrieking to get me.

I quickly entered a long hallway and noticed it was filled from top to bottom with mirrors, reflecting my body.

I didn’t just see myself in the mirrors, but different people instead.

Some of them looked like they belong to an alien race, as some looked like vehicles, machines, and Ms. Allen for some odd reason.

But, a couple revealed Captain Underpants in some of them.

Soon, I reached a dark room after the turn of the hallway.

I quickly entered through the entrance, as the door that I went through closed behind me.

After I had entered the room, I was panting, sweating a bit, as I was bending down slightly, with my left hand on my knee.

Checking if I still have blood on my hand, I glanced down at the right one, expecting it was the same.

But it changed back to my normal hand without any traces of blood.

I sighed in relief as I stood up from bending until I heard a deep, demonic growl from behind my back.

I stiffened again from that sound and started to shake from head to toe.

Another growl came from the creature, and it sounds like it was in front of me.

So, I glanced up to see what it was in front of me, only to freeze on my spot.

I only tremble in fear as my face paled, just like what happened to my mother. 

In front of me is a tall and thin figure, glaring at me with red glowing eyes and pinprick pupils.

It had long nails and baring sharp teeth, snarling as its long bat-like wings were stretched out to attack at me.

The creature also has two long pointed dark red horns that curls back over its head and standing on its hind legs.

It had a somewhat snout sticking out slightly and standing there aggressively, ready to attack me at any moment.

“S-Stay back!” I cried out, backing away from it slowly. “I-I did nothing wrong to you!”

It didn’t listen to my words and took a step forward, growling more as I continued backing away from it, shaking like a leaf.

Then, it positioned itself to attack, as I tried turning around to run away from it, but my joints suddenly froze.

I couldn’t move!

As I frantically tried to move from my spot, it ran towards me, before jumping, roaring as its mouth was wide open, revealing its sharp rows of teeth.

I screamed at the top of my lungs as it went towards me.

The last thing I know, I saw the shadow of the beast on a wall, slashing at me with its clawed right hand.

It had left five long claw marks across my chest, as it was bleeding slightly.

Then it grabbed my shoulders roughly, snarling in my face as its nails dug into my flesh.

In one quick move, it opened its jaws, and I blacked out as it moved forward, before seeing blood splattered everywhere after that, along with a sickening crunch.

* * *

Mr. Krupp woke up with a gasp, sitting up in his bed quickly, covered head to toe with sweat.

Even his pajamas were covered slightly in sweat too.

He was wearing a light blue pajama top, with pants.

When he sat up in his bed, he noticed he was alone in the cabin, and the sun was slowly coming up from the horizon.

There were no signs of any monsters, his mother, and scientists with strange weapons.

But that nightmare felt real.

Goosebumps rose on his arms when he remembered that creature, with an angry look on its face and claws with baring teeth.

That nightmare would keep him up for hours or days!

Shaking his head, he ignored what he remembered and pushed the blankets off of his body, standing up to his feet.

“ _ Good morning! _ ” A lively voice greeted him, startling him a bit as he flinched.

He sighed when he remembered the voice belonged to Captain Underpants.

‘Yeah, yeah, morning to you.’ Mr. Krupp thought, pushing him to the side of his mind as he rubbed his temple.

Captain Underpants floated down to his eyes as he stopped from walking towards the changing room.

“ _ What’s wrong? _ ” Captain Underpants asked, noticing he looked a little distressed from underneath his usual grumpy look. “ _ Is there something bothering you? _ ”

‘Nothing,’ he sighed, moving his hand to him and gently pushing him to the side. ‘I just didn’t sleep well.’

Captain Underpants paused for a moment, before asking, “ _ Is it because of that nightmare we had? _ ”

Mr. Krupp flinched when Captain Underpants asked about that nightmare they had, as the hair on the back of his neck prickled.

Of course, they can share dreams.

‘N-No!’ he barked, looking over his shoulder to him. ‘It’s not that nightmare! I’m just tired of not sleeping well.’

Captain Underpants paused for a moment when he snapped at him slightly, deciding asking about it is not that wise enough.

Mr. Krupp entered the changing room and went to the mirror, gripping the sides of the sink as he shakily sighed through his mouth.

That nightmare does feel real to him.

That scratch that he gave his mother, that chase, everything!

He glanced up at the mirror, seeing his own reflection back at him.

His sharp canines, his chubby body, his tired and angry eyes, and his bald head.

Nothing wrong with that.

He is just himself and himself alone.

Mr. Krupp sighed and ran his hand over his bald head, deciding to start this day already.

He changed back into the usual clothes that he always wears.

A white shirt, tie, green pants with a belt, and shoes.

Not just his clothes, but his ugly toupee too.

After tightening his necktie, he opened the door, only to see a slightly worried Captain Underpants in front of his face.

‘There’s nothing wrong,’ Mr. Krupp thought, grabbed him from mid-air, only it was not a panicked grab or a gruff grip, but it was a gentle one. ‘It’s just a nightmare.’

He placed Captain Underpants in his chest pocket, before picking up his clipboard with the kids’ names on it, along with the whistle to get the kids to get out of their cabins.

He placed it underneath his arm, placing the whistle around his neck and opened the door, exiting out of his cabin.

But, he paused for a moment and glanced over at the cabin next to him, which was George, Harold, Melvin, and Ms. Allen’s cabin.

Shaking his head, he walked into the middle of the cabins and picked his whistle up from his clipboard.

‘Cover your ears.’ Mr. Krupp thought, oddly warning Captain Underpants, who was hiding in his shirt pocket.

Captain Underpants did what he said, and he blew his whistle, getting into his usual character.

“Come on, everyone!” Mr. Krupp shouted gruffly. “Get out of bed!”

Soft groans came from the kids in their cabins, and he blew his whistle again.

“Don’t groan!” He snapped again. “Get out of bed now!”

He crossed his arms over his chest after he had shouted, impatiently waiting for them to hurry and get dressed in their clothes.

Captain Underpants peeked a bit out of his pocket a little, slowly removing one hand from his ears.

“ _ You scream pretty loud. _ ” Captain Underpants remarked.

‘Thanks.’ he growled, flashing a canine.

Soon, the kids came out of their cabins and yawning widely along with stretching their bodies out.

Then, Ms. Allen stepped out, and the way her hair is covering her face looked almost like that beast in his nightmare.

He quietly shuddered to himself from the thought of that creature in the back of his head.

Brushing aside from what he remembered, he shook the memory from his head and called out each students’ names, as they responded.

When he got to Ms. Allen’s name, he called it out, and she responded, “Present.” before yawning, revealing her sharp canines to Mr. Krupp’s slight surprise and felt like déjà vu is happening.

“ _ Wow! _ ” Captain Underpants remarked, peeking out slightly from his breast pocket. “ _ She has canines like you! _ ”

The hair on the back of his neck prickled a little before he shook it off and said, “Alright, everyone, go and eat breakfast and I’ll give you what we are going to do next, okay?”

The kids nodded their heads, and Ms. Allen smiled slightly.

“What about you, Mr. Krupp?” She asked, mentioning to him.

“I’ll just have coffee.” Mr. Krupp responded, before barking at them and pointing at the cafeteria, “Now go!”

All the kids immediately went straight towards the cafeteria, as Ms. Allen sighed, and Mr. Krupp mentally noticed that there were slight bags underneath her eyes.

“I’ll just follow along with them.” Ms. Allen spoke, before following after them.

Mr. Krupp sighed and rubbed his temple, before watching the kids run past one of the teachers, as she backed up from being pushed aside.

“Hey!” She called them before snapping her fingers.

The last thing Mr. Krupp knows, he blacked out after the sound of snapping fingers hits his ears.

Then, he slowly woke up to something wrapped around him, acting like a hammock for him.

Confused and a little frightened, he began to thrash around to get out of what he was inside until he felt the entire hammock moved up, as a familiar voice cried out, “Tra-la-la-la!”

Uh-oh.

Before he knew it, he felt the hammock tossed, and he gave a startled yelp from the sudden movement.

Then, he crash-landed on the ground, as he tumbled out of it.

When he stopped tumbling, he slowly got up from the ground of where he was on his knees, only to encounter Captain Underpants, standing in the flesh and cape.

Not just that, he looked huge!

Panicking, he frantically glanced around to get his attention from the ground, as he stood up to his feet quickly.

His heart was racing as he looked at his surroundings, the grass up to his waist.

“Captain Underpants?!” George exclaimed as he glanced over to the left, seeing him looking panicked like him. “What are you doing here?!”

“I just am.” He shrugged as Mr. Krupp wasted no time and ran over to him, jumping up and down to get his attention.

“ _ Hey! Bub! _ ” Mr. Krupp called to him, as Captain Underpants unexpectedly glanced down to him.

Mentally, Mr. Krupp felt like he regretted trying to get his attention in the first place.

“What are you looking at?” Harold asked, noticing he was looking at him.

‘He can’t see me?’ Mr. Krupp thought to himself, as Captain Underpants glanced up at the two boys.

Captain Underpants cleared his throat and said, speaking truth to his words, “I was speaking with-ARE THOSE WATER SLIDES?!”

He was distracted when he noticed the waterslides, as Mr. Krupp glanced over to what he was saying.

Panicking, he grabbed the edge of Captain Underpants’ cape, trying to use his strength to stop him from running off to go play, when he was suddenly lifted up from the ground.

A startled scream came from him as he was being in the air, as Captain Underpants ran towards the nearest one.

“ _ CAPTAIN!!!! _ ” Mr. Krupp panickedly shrieked, his grip on the edge of Captain Underpants’ cape tightened for dear life.

Somehow, Captain Underpants heard Mr. Krupp’s shriek for his name, and he stopped, as his cape flicked, causing him to be flung forward.

He shrieked as he was tossed forward, before being grabbed around the body, as he stopped.

Mr. Krupp shakily sighed when he was grabbed from being turned into a Mr. Krupp pancake and turned toward Captain Underpants.

“Sorry, Mr. Krupp.” Captain Underpants apologized, luckily none of the kids noticing him. “I was just excited.”

“ _ I get that! _ ” Mr. Krupp snapped, repositioning his body from in the surrounding grip around his middle. “ _ Just stay put next time, or- _ ”

Suddenly, some water was splashed onto both Captain Underpants and Mr. Krupp, causing him to blackout again, and wake up, only to be in his underwear.

“This again?!” He snapped, before feeling tiny pats on his right hand.

“ _ Mr. Krupp? Can you ease your grip around me a little? _ ” He glanced over at his hand and noticed he was holding Captain Underpants in his hand, which confused him.

He did loosen his grip around him so that he can breathe properly and sighed.

“Okay, let me just-” Before he could finish his sentence, the sound of snapping fingers hit his ears and blackout the second time.

He woke up again before being thrusted up into the air, as the surrounding grip around his middle tightened a bit.

“Tra-la-la-laa!” He rolled his eyes when he noticed that Captain Underpants had swapped places with him again.

Then, he was suddenly moved back down from up in the air in front of Captain Underpants’ face.

“Let’s see what else this new place is filled with!” Captain Underpants excitedly spoke, before hastily placed Mr. Krupp on his shoulder.

“ _ W-Wait! _ ” Mr. Krupp spoke, as Captain Underpants ran, as he grabbed two fistfuls of his cape.

Before they knew it, water was splashed into their faces and Mr. Krupp blackout again, waking up in his underwear.

“ _ Why does this happen to me?! _ ” Mr. Krupp exclaimed, before hearing the sound of snapping fingers again, blacking out and waking up on Captain Underpants’ shoulder.

“Tra-la-la-laa!” Captain Underpants cried out, as Mr. Krupp covered his ears from the sound of his voice.

“Quick, splash him with water!” Harold exclaimed as George ran off.

Mr. Krupp glanced over at them, wondering what they mean by that.

“Why water?!” Melvin exclaimed, looking confused.

“Watch and learn!” George ran over with a cup filled with water in his hand and splashed it into Captain Underpants’ face.

Once again, Mr. Krupp blacked out from the impact of water, changing back into his regular self, except soaking wet.

He shook his head and glanced down at his body, as the usual grumpy look reappeared.

“Why am I soaking wet?!” Mr. Krupp exclaimed, shaking his hands.

Luckily, Captain Underpants physically disappeared, but not mentally.

Then, the sound of snapping fingers happened, as the expression changed back to Captain Underpants, puffing his chest and standing up tall.

“Tra-la-la-laa!” He called out, as Harold facepalmed.

“That’s what happened?!” Melvin cried out.

“Yes, that’s why we need to splash water on him to turn back to Mr. Krupp!” George yelled, running over to Captain Underpants with another cup of water.

But before he could splash him with water, Captain Underpants ran off to see another part of the camp.

“Where did he go?!” George exclaimed, as the three glanced around for him.

“Found him!” Melvin spoke, pointing at a disappearing person wearing underwear and a polka-dotted cape.

“After him!” Harold pointed, as the three chased after him.

Along the way, Melvin was mentally telling himself he had almost killed their principal since he had teamed up with an ex-teacher of their own.

Meanwhile, Captain Underpants continued running around, while Mr. Krupp’s grip on his cape was really tight that the knuckles of his hands were turning white.

“ _ Sl-Slow down! _ ” Mr. Krupp cried out, as Captain Underpants turned a tight corner.

Then, he stopped as Mr. Krupp yelped.

“Wow! That looks fun!” Captain Underpants pointed to the yellow water slide.

“ _ Yes, but we are not going to ride it! _ ” Mr. Krupp snapped, causing Captain Underpants to flinch. “ _ We are going to see those boys now, and- _ ”

Before he could finish his words, water was once again splashed into their faces and Mr. Krupp blackout, before waking up in his underwear.

That did it.

Just as George, Harold, Melvin, and Ms. Allen came over to see if Mr. Krupp is okay, when they heard a shriek of frustration from him, then a thumping noise.

When they glanced over to see what was that, they saw Mr. Krupp lying on the ground, softly groaning as he had a hand on the side of his temple, where the injury is before.

“Er, are you okay, Mr. Krupp?” Ms. Allen uneasily asked, taking a step forward.

“How is feeling tired, sore, stripped down to your underwear and only wearing a cape, and having a headache in your head is ‘fine?’” Mr. Krupp snapped, sitting up slightly, before lying back down on the ground.

Ms. Allen paused for a moment before saying, “Yep, he’s fine.”

Walking over, the three helped Mr. Krupp back up to his feet, as Ms. Allen had his clothes looped over one arm and his shoes in the other.

“Do you want to get back to your cabin and change?” Ms. Allen curiously asked as Mr. Krupp glanced up at her.

“Yes, I do.” Mr. Krupp responded, before wobbling a bit.

Luckily, with the three kids, they helped him walk back to the cabin, while Mr. Krupp was using the cape to cover his underwear.

When they were passing by the entrance of the cafeteria, a familiar voice said, “Principal Krupp?”

Immediately, all five flinched from the sound of the voice and glanced over to see Edith standing there, looking a bit confused about what Mr. Krupp is wearing.

“Are you doing the same thing like 2 years ago?” Edith asked, sounding confused.

Mr. Krupp’s face went entirely red, ears included.

“N-No!” Melvin spoke, stepping before the four. “He was just hot and couldn’t find his swimming trunks. So, he decided to go into the lake with his underwear and brought the cape with him so that he wouldn’t be seen like this.”

Edith still has a confused look on her face, as Melvin lied to her.

When he finished, Melvin mentally felt worried that she would not take the lie for good, but she instead shrugged her shoulders and said, “Okay, I’ll just pretend I didn’t notice him.”

She turned her back towards them and faced the cafeteria, as Ms. Allen gently urged them to Mr. Krupp’s cabin, quickly as they can.

Once they entered inside his cabin, Edith glanced over her shoulder, noticing they had left.

She sighed in relief as she had a gloved hand on her chest, as there was a light green tentacle from underneath her dress, wrapped around her leg, but slightly visible.

Meanwhile, Ms. Allen sighed as she glanced over at the boys, mostly Mr. Krupp, who was hiding underneath his blankets, blushing madly with red.

“Hey, at least no one else than Edith saw you.” Ms. Allen shrugged.

“Yeah, it could be worse than that.” George nodded his head, agreeing with her.

Mr. Krupp said nothing, but continued hiding underneath his blankets, wrapped entirely around him.

“Uh, Mr. Krupp?” Ms. Allen got over to him and gently moved the blanket to the side as he snapped out of his daze. “Did you hear what we said?”

Panicking, he stammered while backing away from her to the wall behind him, “What? I’m fine! Nothing wrong is happening to me!”

Ms. Allen sighed and sat down on the bed in front of him as he shrank a bit into the blankets wrapped around him.

“Sometimes, people say that because they are afraid that something else about themselves might go out of control, and things might not be the same.” Ms. Allen spoke, surprising the kids, mostly Mr. Krupp too.

Ms. Allen paused for a moment, before getting off the bed, pushing a stray of hair from her face.

“Now, let’s just change you back into your usual clothes and continue with the rest of the day.” Ms. Allen spoke, before saying, “But, remember to keep a close eye out for anything weird or out of the ordinary for you. If you feel like something is wrong with you, come to the kids or me, okay?”

Mr. Krupp paused for a moment, feeling unsure an adult was asking another one to tell their problems to children.

But, he wanted to find out what is going on with himself, so, redundantly, he said, “Alright, I’ll let you know if there is something wrong with me.”

Ms. Allen nodded her head before holding her right hand out for a handshake.

“Shake on it first.” Ms. Allen spoke as Mr. Krupp absentmindedly noticed that her eyes seem to be glowing faintly.

Mr. Krupp paused for a moment about what he was doing, but took her hand and shook on it like how he had done it with Captain Underpants.

This might be a weird camping trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	7. Learning Behind The Covers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Mr. Krupp's out, Ms. Allen decided that it is her time to shine!

In the afternoon, Ms. Allen has decided to take over the camp since Mr. Krupp was acting strange again.

But before she could go tell the kids of what the plan is after lunch, she was strictly told nothing fun before she left his cabin.

But, Ms. Allen had a trick up her sleeve since she was strictly told nothing fun.

So, she went into the cafeteria where the kids are, deciding to have lunch first before explaining what her idea is.

She took her hand-stitched bag along with her and stepped into the cafeteria.

Ms. Allen decided not to sit with the other teachers because of her insecurity about their decisions about teaching kids “lessons.”

So, she was glancing around for any signs of George or Harold or Melvin.

Just as she took one more glance around the cafeteria, she saw a hand waving towards her from the back.

“Over here, Ms. Allen!” Harold’s voice called, as she softly sighed.

She walked over to where they are, noticing that Melvin was strangely sitting with them, looking hesitant at first to talk with them.

“Hi, Ms. Allen!” George waved as she gently smiled. “Come sit with us!”

She nodded her head and sat in between them, just like what she did earlier with them.

“So, how’s Mr. Krupp?” Harold asked, sounding a bit worried.

“He’s fine.” Ms. Allen assured them. “He thinks he’s going crazy and needs a few hours to relax his nerves and get the headache out of his head.”

They both sighed in relief, and Melvin looked a little confused about what he had experienced before.

“So, how did all of this start?” Melvin asked as they glanced up at him.

“What?” George asked, sounding confused.

“The snapping and the water?” Melvin responded, snapping his fingers and mentioning to his drink. “Where did it begin?”

Ms. Allen glanced down to the boys, as they both looked a little sheepish.

“Yeah, I was wondering about that too,” Ms. Allen nodded her head. “How did all of that crazy stuff happened?”

George and Harold glanced at each other over Ms. Allen, before George explained, “Well, it began 2 years ago, and Mr. Krupp was going to separate the both of us after he caught us with that convention.”

Melvin rolled his eyes when he remembered that convention, how they hack into his Toilet Turbo 2000 and created havoc in the school, embarrassing him in the process.

“And I got this 3-D Hypno-ring after Mr. Krupp got us and hypnotized him with it.” George continued explaining, as Ms. Allen and Melvin listened to them. “We played with him a bit, but we went a little too far when we commanded him to be Captain Underpants, our comic book hero.”

Ms. Allen nodded her head gently as Melvin gently facepalmed himself above his glasses.

Mostly irritated at himself of almost killing him with revenge and them for making a fool out of Mr. Krupp.

“Did you find a way to turn him back?” Ms. Allen gently asked, sounding curious.

“We destroy the Hypno-ring after defeating Professor Poopypants thinking that is a way to return Mr. Krupp back to normal permanently,” Harold replied, as Melvin once again rolled his eyes. “But, his powers and himself is still there even after destroying it.”

Ms. Allen gently cocked her head to the side slightly when she heard the name “Professor Poopypants.”

“Who’s he?” She asked, sounding curious.

“He’s the greatest genius of science,” Melvin responded. “But, bent on revenge when people started laughing about his name.”

Then a slightly sheepish look appeared on his face.

“Before I started helping him because he amazed me,” Melvin added. “And along with him, he used me as a way to destroy the laughter in us.”

“Wow, that’s messed up.” Ms. Allen bluntly spoke, sighing softly. “But at least you didn’t hurt anyone, did you?”

Melvin paused for a moment before nodding his head.

“Well, you are correct about that, Ms. Allen.” Melvin softly agreed. “I didn’t hurt anyone.”

“What if you did?” Ms. Allen pressed, as goosebumps rose on Melvin’s arms.

If he did, then he will call himself a monster.

Ms. Allen shook her head and said, “Anyways, since Mr. Krupp is out for the moment, still trying to get the headache out of his head, I was thinking of a plan.”

Melvin mentally winced to himself from the thought of what else would Ms. Allen think.

Besides that, she did not give him something embarrassing earlier, but was kind enough to let him have some math equations to solve.

“What’s the plan?” Harold curiously asked.

Ms. Allen paused for a moment, before answering to Harold’s ask, smiling a bit, “Who’s up with crafts?”

George and Harold’s faces lit up when she asked that question, but Melvin looked a little confused.

Why arts and crafts?

Soon, everyone finished their lunches with Ms. Allen waiting patiently for them, they all followed Ms. Allen to the arts and crafts cabin.

The cabin is big like the cafeteria, but filled with different types of crafts inside.

Once Ms. Allen opened the doors by using a key that Mr. Krupp lends her, a smile appeared on her face as she turned towards the rest of the kids.

“Alright, you all can go have fun with creating what you want, but a few rules.” Ms. Allen spoke before warning them. “Always share what others want, and be kind too.”

The kids nodded their heads before Ms. Allen moved out of the way, allowing them to go through.

After she moved out of the way, they went inside quickly, as Melvin was caught up in the crowd.

But a pair of hands gently grabbed his wrists before he could get trampled over and gently pulled him back, as the crowd entered inside the cabin.

After he was yanked back from the crowd, Melvin glanced over his shoulder to see what had pulled him back to see George and Harold.

“Come on,” Harold excitedly spoke, glancing around. “Let’s find a spot to make comic books!”

“And you can help us with spelling!” George added as Melvin looked a little confused.

But went along with them as they went towards an empty table, as the kids gathered some things and went back to their seats, either drawing, cutting, gluing, or writing.

Ms. Allen, on the other hand, decided to do ceramics to calm her mind about what she saw.

As she got over to the back of the cabin, she noticed there was someone else there too.

He is very tall, has brown hair that covers the upper-half of his head, and has lightly tanned skin.

He wears an orange woolly hat, a velvet shirt, blue jeans, and a purple jacket.

When Ms. Allen appeared, he glanced over at her and looked a bit confused.

“Uh, hi?” he greeted in confusion.

“Hi, I was wondering something;”‌ she spoke, smiling gently. “Do you mind if I do some ceramics too?”

“You like ceramics?”‌ he asked, looking slightly surprised from underneath his bangs.

“Yeah,” Ms. Allen happily beamed. “I’ve created a lot of ceramics back when I was about 14 or 15 years old. My parents were proud of me when I showed them the first ceramic I made.”‌

“That’s amazing!”‌ he remarked, looking impressed. “Bo Hweemuth is my name.”

“Ms. Allen is my name, Bo.”‌ she smiled, patting his shoulder, before glancing over at the halfway project he was creating. “What are you making, though?”

Bo looked over his shoulder and answered Ms. Allen’s question, “I’m making something for someone I liked.”

“Really?”‌ Ms. Allen smirked, removing her hand from his shoulder. “Who is it?”

Bo’s cheeks blushed a little from the ask that she asked, and glanced over around them, seeing three girls.

Ms. Allen glanced over and noticed the three, as they were talking to each other, someone the one in the middle would demand too.

“Which one do you like?”‌ Ms. Allen asked.

“The girl wearing the green dress and standing right next to Jessica,” Bo explained, blushing slightly.

Ms. Allen glanced at the three for a moment before noticing the girl that he was mentioning.

She has puffy hair with two mini curls at the end.

Her hair is orange with a green hairband.

Her glasses are purple with bright blue and purple lens.

The dress is in the same color as her hairband and has a purple belt.

Her sleeves are bright yellow and white, and the vest underneath is white.

She wears white and yellow socks with green ballet shoes.

Her skin color is peach, and her eyes are black doe eyes.

“That’s the girl you liked?” She asked, pointing at her.

Bo quietly nodded his head in response, as his cheeks blushed.

A‌ sly smile appeared on her face, as she placed her hands on his shoulders, gently turning him around to the project that he was making.

“Why don’t you finish that project of yours?” she softly asked, patting his shoulder. “Maybe making it could give you some ideas of how you could present it to her.”

Bo paused for a moment from her suggestion, and looked over at her, nodding his head.

Ms. Allen smiled and walked away from him, getting herself some clay for herself.

She first took her sweater off from getting it dirty from the clay, as the kids looked slightly surprised to see she had taken it off.

They had never seen Ms. Allen take her sweater off before around the kids, even on a hot sunny day.

“Harold,” George whispered, gently elbowing his side. “Did you see that?”

Harold glanced up to see what George is talking about and noticed what he meant.

“Wow, she looks really skinny without that large sweater on,” Harold remarked, as Melvin also looked at what Ms. Allen is doing, wondering what they both were talking about.

Melvin looked slightly amused at how skinny she is until she rolled her sleeves up to her forearms.

On her left arm is covered in multiple scars as her right looks normal!

Some are long, short, even a few that circles around her wrist.

But, the ones that poke out the most were the two bite marks.

The first bite mark was on her wrist and looked almost like a human’s as the second one looked almost like a monster’s.

George and Harold’s expressions changed into shock, as Melvin softly gasped and covered his mouth, shocked to see that Ms. Allen’s left arm is covered in scars.

Luckily, Ms. Allen did not notice they saw her scars as she tied a light blue apron around her middle, as her sweater was tied around her waist.

“D-Did you see that, Harold?” George stammered as Harold silently nodded his head.

“Ms. Allen has scars?” Melvin mumbled, turning back to the two from looking at her. “Where did she get them?”

“I don’t know.” Harold finally spoke, worriedly rubbing his left arm. “Maybe a dog incident?”

“What type of dog would do that to her, Harold?!” George exclaimed softly, mentioning to her arm. “Those don’t look like a dog’s bite!”

Harold paused for a moment, before glancing away from looking at her.

“You’re right, George.” Harold nodded his head slowly. “But maybe sometime she’ll explain what happened to her arm?”

“If she didn’t get PTSD from that attack,” Melvin responded, but the look on his face looked concerned. “I don’t think she is comfortable explaining how she got those scars now.”

“What’s ‘PTSD,’ Melvin?” Harold asked, sounding confused.

“Post-traumatic stress disorder, Harold,” Melvin responded. “It’s a type of disorder after an incident, like in the military, navy, or something horrible like car crashes or anything that gives you nightmares. It lasts longer if not treated, but can still be there even if treated.”

George thought to himself as Harold glanced away for a moment.

“Maybe if we gained more of her trust?” Melvin spoke, shrugging his shoulders gently.

They glanced back at him and nodded their heads, agreeing with him.

“Yeah, that could work.” George nodded his head. “But, we have to be careful from talking about anything that could cause flashbacks.”

“Yes, and these are the signs that she does have PTSD,” Melvin spoke, as they both listened to him. “Numbness, bad memory, nightmares, insomnia, guilt, hopelessness, no focus, hallucinations, substance abuse, anger, self-destruct, shame, flashbacks, and irritable.”

“Wow, that’s a lot about PTSD,” Harold spoke, sounding slightly surprised.

“Yeah, I have a whole medical book on about disorders,” Melvin spoke, sounding prided slightly. “There are strabismus, Heterochromia, ADHD-”

“Hey, that’s what we have!” George pointed out, interrupting Melvin from listing the disorders he read about.

A confused look replaced his slightly irritated look, as he heard them talk about ADHD.

“You both have ADHD?” Melvin asked, sounding confused.

“Yeah!” Harold nodded his head. “We were born with it!”

“Our parents explained what ADHD was when we were about 4 or 5 years old!” George added.

Now Melvin understood why they both were acting strange around everyone.

They both are diagnosed with ADHD this whole time!

“D-Do you two know the symptoms of ADHD?” Melvin stammered, not believing what his ears heard from them responded to one of the disorders he spoke of.

“Yeah, it’s hyper-focusing, rejection sensitivity dysphoria, sensory processing disorder, skimming, anxiety, defiance, and immaturity,” George explained.

Harold nodded his head and wrapped one arm around George’s shoulders.

“I was surprised myself when I learned George had ADHD too,” Harold spoke, gently poking George’s side.

Melvin looked surprised that they know what ADHD is and now understand what Erica was talking about.

He paused for a moment before saying, “I have Asperger’s.”

George and Harold looked a little confused about what Melvin meant by that.

“What’s ‘Asperger’s?’” Harold asked, removing his arm from George’s shoulders.

“Asperger’s is a disorder that affects the ability to socialize and communicate effectively,” Melvin explained, sighing gently. “My parents told me this when I was about 4 years old too.”

George and Harold looked surprised after Melvin explained what Asperger’s is.

“Wow, so that’s why you’re not the one for communicating with people?” Harold asked as Melvin slowly nodded his head, looking a little ashamed for telling them his flaw. “But hey, we’re all different!”

“I know, but I’m not supposed to be different!” Melvin softly complained, startling the two slightly. “I was supposed to be a good student that is good with everything and science! I wanted to be a scientist like my father, not having a disorder!”

“What if your father has a disorder too?” George gently pressed as Melvin paused for a moment. “Not everyone is the same.”

Melvin opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out.

What if he could be right about mentioning his parents having disorders?

If everyone is ordinary like how he wanted, everything would be confusing for him to understand.

“You have a point.” Melvin softly spoke, glancing away from them and gently rubbing his left arm.

“Yeah, and you are slowly learning to communicate, right?” Harold added as he glanced back at them. “Spoiler alert, but Ms. Allen assigned us to help you to get to know us better.”

Melvin flinched when he heard those words from Harold.

Ms. Allen assigned them to him?

“Wh-When did this happen?” He stammered, placing a hand on his cheek.

“Uh, yesterday,” George answered.

“Do you remember when Ms. Allen pulled us to the side?” Harold asked as Melvin nodded his head. “She was actually talking to us about helping us with you. I think she noticed the syndromes about Asperger’s that she read before and talked to us to help you.”

“Yeah, even Erica after she met you in the cafeteria,” George added.

‘I’m doomed.’ Melvin mentally thought to himself, cringing that he has to stay with them, despite Mr. Krupp’s words to keep an eye on them and Ms. Allen’s deal.

Not only that, but Erica too?

That is going to make things even difficulter around his crush.

Just as he thought that Erica sat right next to him.

“Hello, Melvin.” Erica greeted, as Melvin yelped in startlement and fell backwards onto the ground, his glasses almost falling off his face. “Are you okay?”

“P-Perfectly fine.” Melvin stammered, his cheeks flustering with embarrassment as there were waves of laughter from the boys in the background.

George and Harold only snickered at his fall instead of laughing at him, as he sat up, readjusting his glasses into place.

Erica rolled her eyes from their snickering, mostly from the boys in the background laughing at him.

She stood back up from sitting down on the bench and held a hand out for him.

“Need a hand up?” Erica asked as Melvin’s cheeks blushed a little.

“Y-Uh, sure.” Melvin stammered, before taking her hand.

She gave one single heave, effortlessly lifting him back up to his feet.

“Uh, Harold,” George whispered as Harold glanced over at her. “Is Melvin in love with Erica?”

“He is?” Harold whispered back, glancing over at him, and he sat back down, pulling his collar a little as he sweats, looking fidgety.

“Yep, he is.” George nodded.

After Erica sat back down once helping Melvin with getting up to his feet, they went about telling comics of their famous comic book hero, as Ms. Allen was watching from the back, smiling gently.

So far, she had made a vase from clay, and it dried off rather quickly.

Halfway through the day, Harold glanced up from his work, seeing someone, before glancing up the second time, his cheeks blushing a light red color.

Standing in the distance was a young boy, looking a little nervous as he gently wrung his hands.

He has fair skin color and floppy dark brown hair.

The boy wears a pair of purple rectangular glasses and a brown and dark purple striped shirt.

He also wears a pair of brown pants and light gray sneakers.

George glanced once over at Harold, before glancing over the second time, noticing something strange with Harold.

His cheeks were blushing madly, and his jaw was dropped slightly, as the pencil in his hand was dropped.

“Uh, Harold?” George spoke, but with no response from him.

Confused, he waved a hand in front of his face, trying to get him to snap out of his daze.

“Harold?” George spoke, sighing when he got no response from him again.

So, using his mother’s technique, he pinched Harold’s ear with his index finger and thumb, yelling, “Harold!”

Harold loudly yelped in both startlement and in pain, luckily George released his ear in time before being launched backwards along with him.

He bounced out of his seat like a bunny, before falling backwards on the ground.

“What is wrong with you, George?” Harold asked, his cheeks blushing another shade as George sighed.

“What were you staring at, Harold?” George asked, before glancing over to see what or who he was staring at.

Immediately, Harold’s face blushed another shade, scrambling to get back up to his feet to stop George to see who he was staring at.

But it was too late.

George noticed the kid that he was staring at, as Harold mentally prayed that he is not disgusted at what he saw.

He glanced back over at Harold, with a confused look on his face, instead of what he expected to be disgust.

Worried he might notice he was being stared at, Harold peeked over the side of the table, watching as the boy glanced around, before locking eyes on Harold.

Immediately, Harold ducked when he locked eyes on him, as Melvin looked confused.

“What is wrong with him?” Melvin asked, sighing.

“🎜He’s in love with someone,🎜” George spoke in a sing-along, before being grabbed by his striped tie, shushed by Harold, whose ears are tipped with red.

“With who?” a different male’s voice curiously asked, as Harold’s face turned bright red.

Erica, George, and Melvin glanced over to see who asked that question, to see the kid who Harold was staring at.

“Oh, who you might be?” George asked as Harold released his tie and covered his face with his hands in shame.

“I’m Billy,” Billy answered, walking over to where George is, before stopping from behind Harold, not noticing he was sitting there on the ground. “Billy Doanbee-Ahiro.”

“Quite the mouthful,” Melvin responded, sounding amused at his name slightly.

“Yeah,” Billy spoke, looking all shy as he glanced away from them, before noticing Harold on the ground. “Who’s he?”

Harold flinched when he heard Billy asked of him, as he turned around 180 degrees towards him quickly, before conking the side of his head on the table.

George, Erica, Billy, and Melvin winced after the impact of the table, as Ms. Allen glanced up in confusion, hearing that conking noise.

But, she gently shrugged her shoulders and went back to what she was doing, now painting the vase she finished designing.

Billy knelt to Harold’s height, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you alright?” Billy asked as Harold glanced up at him.

A blush went across his face instantly when he went glasses to eye with him, as slight babbles came from his throat.

“I think that’s Harold’s way of saying he’s okay,” George spoke, turning around to them.

“His name is Harold?” Billy asked, as Harold finally snapped out of his daze.

“Uh, Harold Hutchins!” Harold spoke as Billy glanced back at him as he finally snapped out of his mumbling. “Harold Hutchins is my name.”

A slight blush appeared on Billy’s cheeks after Harold said his name, as George noticed the reaction between the two boys.

“Wait, are you in love with Billy, Harold?” George asked, as Harold’s face once again went red.

Billy looked surprised from what George said, as Harold had half a mind to grab him by the tie again.

“Y-You are?” Billy stammered, his cheeks blushing too.

Shamefully, Harold nodded his head, feeling like he wanted to run away from him.

“That’s cool!” George smiled. “I didn’t know you are gay!”

Harold looked startled by what he said, as Melvin and Erica walked around the table to Harold.

“Yeah, I didn’t expect that from you, Harold.” Melvin nodded his head. “That’s… interesting.”

“‘Interesting?’” Erica exclaimed as Melvin looked startled. “It’s cool! It doesn’t matter which gender you like, as long as that person is okay with it!”

Harold’s cheeks blushed another shade and glanced away, rubbing the back of his neck.

He feels slightly relieved they are okay with his gender liking, but was not too sure about what Billy thinks about it.

“I like him too,” Billy spoke, smiling softly.

Immediately, Harold’s face went bright red from Billy’s response to George’s question earlier, before fainting on the spot.

Melvin and Erica quickly grabbed him before his head hits the tiles, as Billy looked concerned.

“D-Did I do something wrong?!” Billy exclaimed, slightly panicking after Harold fainted.

“No, you just knocked him out from love,” Erica assured him, as Melvin was fanning him with his hand.

Billy blushed a little from the response from Erica and chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck.

Ms. Allen decided to go over to see what the kids are doing, only to notice a passed out Harold and a sheepish boy.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Ms. Allen asked, startling the sheepish boy as he flinched.

“Oh, n-nothing, Ms. Allen!” he responded, madly blushing as he waved his hands. “J-Just that Harold passed out from the heat!”

“‘Heat?’” Ms. Allen curiously asked, cocking her head to the side, before something in her eyes noticed something between both Harold and him. “Okay, just make sure to use some ice-cold water bottles to help him with the heat.”

She winked her left eye, confusing him as he raised an eyebrow.

“Let me go get you one.” Ms. Allen smiled before walking off, her hands behind her back.

Billy looked confused from what she said before hearing soft groans from Harold.

He glanced back at him and noticed he was waking back up from his fainting.

“What-?” he spoke, before realizing what happened.

His face went red, and he stammered while taking Billy’s hands.

“I-Is that true, B-Billy?” Harold asked, stammering a bit in his words.

Billy nodded his head, and Harold blushed a shade, as George glanced at them both.

“Kiss if you two liked each other so much!” George exclaimed as Harold’s, and Billy’s face went red at the same time.

“Uh, George, at this rate, you are going to make them both pass out.” Melvin sighed, pinching his nose bridge. “And, I don’t think they are at that rate yet.”

Billy and Harold glanced away from each other, blushing as Harold gave George a side glare.

George shrugged his shoulders from the glare, before turning his body towards the pages they were drawing, only to see a girl sitting in front of George, looking at one of the pages.

She has long black hair that is up in pigtails and fair skin color.

The girl is wearing a big short-sleeved light pink shirt, that reaches down to her thighs.

Underneath the shirt is a white and light purple skirt.

Not only that, but she is also wearing short black tights underneath her skirt and black slippers.

She glanced up once to check her surroundings for a moment to see who is in front of her.

After checking her surroundings, she glanced back down at the page in her hands.

During her check, there was a flash of brown when she glanced down at the page.

Then, she took a second glance, noticing that George was staring at her instead of checking if Harold is okay.

There was blush on his cheeks from underneath his coffee skin color.

“Oh, hi!” she happily greeted, placing the page down in front of her. “I’m Lisa Bobseea, you?”

George stuttered when she asked for his name, as Harold got up from the ground, noticing her, before looking at George.

A devilish smirk appeared on his face, and he said, in a sing-along voice, “🎜Someone is in love too.🎜”

George’s face blushed another shade after Harold had teased him, as a soft giggle came from Lisa.

“I noticed that,” Lisa spoke, smiling gently. “But who drew these comics? They’re good and funny at the same time!”

Harold shyly spoke, “I was the one drawing them.”

“And I was the one writing the lines,” George added, finally snapping out of his daze.

Lisa giggled and looked around for the next page of the comic.

“Where’s the next page?” Lisa asked as George winced.

“We’re working on it, Lisa,” Harold spoke, not noticing that Billy bat right next to him. “We were distracted a little.”

Before he could grab his pencil that he dropped from the shocked reaction to first seeing Billy, he encountered him, as his cheeks blushed.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” He asked, nervously tapping his fingers as his cheeks blushed too.

Harold paused for a moment, before nodding his head, then hugged him gently.

Melvin paused for a moment as he watched George and Lisa talk to each other about a plan, as Harold and Billy planned the next scene of the comic.

A slightly unsure look appeared on his face for a moment before asking, hesitating a little, “Could I help re-edit the page, after you finish writing it, George?”

George glanced over at Melvin from talking to Lisa before nodding his head.

“Sure, I would like that!” George smiled, surprising Melvin a little from the enthusiastic answer.

Then, he turned back to Lisa, who is now sitting right next to him on the opposite side than Billy.

Melvin gently smiled a little, before glancing over at Erica, blushing slightly.

“Well, since I have nothing to do, I guess it doesn’t hurt to talk a little too.” Erica shrugged, as Melvin scooted a little closer to her.

Ms. Allen finished making her ceramic and placing her finished vase into the oven to harden it.

She stood back up to her height once she closed the oven and sighed.

Using her left scarred arm, she wiped some sweat from her brow.

There was mud that reaches up to her wrists.

She glanced over at the kids to see if anyone is misbehaving when she instead noticed the 6 kids at the farthest table in the back.

They looked like they are enjoying each other, talking, drawing, writing, and editing.

Not only that, they are sometimes blushing.

Ms. Allen gently cocked her head to the side when she noticed they all are in love.

Mostly surprised that Harold likes that boy who was lying her for him.

She was not bothered by that but was happy he found someone who he likes.

But, she mentally was worried about his parents on the other hand.

Maybe they do not like what he accepted himself?

But, she decided to brave herself for what is to come when she meets them in person.

Just as things are getting more creative, the doors of the cabin slammed opened, revealing to be Mr. Krupp.

He had just woken up from his nap.

Mr. Krupp noticed the kids were painting, drawing, cutting, and making crafts, which made him angry, as his hands clenched into fists.

“MS. ALLEN!” He shrieked at the top of his lungs, as the kids quickly moved out of the way, scared to either get detentions from him or get their projects ripped from him.

Ms. Allen walked in front of the group of huddled kids and up to Mr. Krupp.

Luckily, the clay on her hands was dried up from being wet.

“Yes, sir?” Ms. Allen answered, getting into her formal position.

“I thought I told you no fun!” Mr. Krupp snapped as she looked unfazed from his anger, his face red.

“Yes, but I didn’t understand it,” Ms. Allen responded coldly, instantly getting out of her formal position. “You’re just avoiding what camp means to others. Camping means to spend time with your friends, make new ones, and learn about each other. And to have fun with one another. Getting over your problems that you went through.”

Mr. Krupp snarled deeply, getting ready to fire her on the spot.

The kids behind Ms. Allen backed away from Mr. Krupp further, almost close to Bo, as he had his large arms wrapped around them.

“Y-You’re not supposed to be like this!” Mr. Krupp loudly bellowed as he stomped his feet, causing the cabin to shake at each stomp. “You’re supposed to obey orders, and supposed to act formal, y-you’re almost acting like a child!”

Ms. Allen paused for a moment, before responding to his words, crossing her arms over her chest, “I am a child.” Then, she unfolded one of her arms and poked his chest with a single digit of her hand. “What’s your excuse?”

The kids softly gasped after she told Mr. Krupp off, as Mr. Krupp’s expression on his face changed from angry to slightly surprised as a light blush appeared on his cheeks than a raging red color.

No one had ever stood up to him.

Not face to face, but gives out empty threats to him from a distance.

Now, he does not know how to make a comeback to what she had said.

Sighing, she moved her finger from his chest and placed both of her hands on his shoulders, gently pushing him out of the cabin.

“Now, if you don’t mind,” She began, as she moved her hands from his shoulders, placing them on the doors. “We’re going to have some fun.”

When she glanced back up at his eyes, he absentmindedly noticed there was a faint light red glow to her steel-blue eyes.

Not only that, but there were scars on her left arm, along with bite marks that made him feel more suspicious and slightly worried internally.

“That is all.” she huffed, bowing slightly to him, before shutting down the doors in front of his face.

After she closed the doors in front of him, Mr. Krupp’s skin prickled with goosebumps as a shiver went down his spine.

The vision of that creature in his nightmare flashed through his head, snarling at him and baring sharp teeth.

It looked almost like Ms. Allen when she was slightly irritated at him for making a scene like that.

Shaking his head, he ignored what he saw with Ms. Allen, trying to tell himself it is not her.

She’s too gentle to be like that… horrifying beast.

Unless there is something else about her that might be like it.

Shuddering quietly to himself, he went straight to the teacher’s lounge to get something that could ease his mind from what happened.

Maybe if he could talk to Edith about what he saw in his nightmares that could ease his nerves about Ms. Allen too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this story! A few friends of mine from Tumblr helped me with this!


End file.
